Access to and use of paid sick leave among low-income families with children.

Publisher: American Academy of Pediatrics Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0376422 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1098-4275 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00314005 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Pediatrics Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Elk Grove Village Il : American Academy of Pediatrics
Original Publication: Springfield, Ill., Thomas.

Child Care/*statistics & numerical data ; Employment/*statistics & numerical data ; Parental Leave/*statistics & numerical data ; Poverty/*statistics & numerical data ; Sick Leave/*statistics & numerical data; Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Child Care/economics ; Child Welfare ; Child, Preschool ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Needs Assessment ; Parental Leave/economics ; Poverty/economics ; Probability ; Public Policy ; Salaries and Fringe Benefits ; Sick Leave/economics ; Socioeconomic Factors ; United States ; Urban Health

Objective: The ability of employed parents to meet the health needs of their children may depend on their access to sick leave, especially for low-income workers, who may be afforded less flexibility in their work schedules to accommodate these needs yet also more likely to have children in poor health. Our goal was to provide rates of access to paid sick leave and paid vacation leave among low-income families with children and to assess whether access to these benefits is associated with parents' leave taking to care for themselves or others.
Methods: We used a sample of low-income families (<200% of the federal poverty level) with children aged 0 to 17 years in the 2003 and 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to examine bivariate relationships between access to and use of paid leave and characteristics of children, families, and parents' employer.
Results: Access to paid leave was lower among children in low-income families than among those in families with higher income. Within low-income families, children without >or=1 full-time worker in the household were especially likely to lack access to this benefit, as were children whose parents work for small employers. Among children whose parents had access to paid sick leave, parents were more likely to take time away from work to care for themselves or others. This relationship is even more pronounced among families with the highest need, such as children in fair or poor health and children with all parents in full-time employment.
Conclusions: Legislation mandating paid sick leave could dramatically increase access to this benefit among low-income families. It would likely diminish gaps in parents' leave taking to care for others between families with and without the benefit. However, until the health-related consequences are better understood, the full impact of such legislation remains unknown.

Date Created: 20080805 Date Completed: 20080822 Latest Revision: 20080804

20240628

10.1542/peds.2007-3294

18676534