Covid-19 Highlights Urgent Need for Paid Sick Leave

Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Elise Gould, the Senior Economist with the Economic Policy Institute focusing on issues of wages, poverty, inequality, economic mobility and health care. She recently wrote the piece, “Amid COVID-19 outbreak, the workers who need paid sick days the most have the least”

After Democratic Senator Patty Murray introduced a bill to require 14 days of paid sick leave for American workers, GOP Senate chair Lamar Alexander immediately blocked the bill saying it should be funded by taxpayers not the private sector.

The spread of the coronavirus has highlighted the gaping holes in the US economy including the lack of paid sick leave across the nation.

Even aside from the new virus, millions of Americans contract the seasonal flu each year and tens of thousands die.

Paid sick leave is strongly correlated with fewer infections and deaths. With this new highly infectious and deadlier disease at hand, will the government do the right thing?

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Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman.

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