Stay home or work sick? Omicron poses a conundrum for workers without paid sick days

While many companies instituted more robust sick leave policies at the beginning of the pandemic, some of those have since been scaled back with the rollout of the vaccines, even though omicron has managed to evade the shots. Meanwhile, the current labor shortage is adding to the pressure of workers having to decide whether to show up to their job sick if they can't afford to stay home.

What's more, Schneider noted that the share of workers with paid sick leave before the pandemic barely budged during the pandemic - 50% versus 51% respectively. He further noted many of the working poor surveyed don't even have $400 in emergency funds, and families will now be even more financially strapped with the expiration of the child tax credit, which had put a few hundred dollars in families' pockets every month.

A Trader Joe's worker in California, who also asked not to be named because they didn't want to risk their job, said the company lets workers accrue paid time off that they can use for vacations or sick days. But once that time is used up, employees often feel like they can't afford to take unpaid days.

Meanwhile, Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, is slashing pandemic-related paid leave in half - from two weeks to one - after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced isolation requirements for people who don't have symptoms after they test positive. "We can't do a patchwork sort of thing. It has to be holistic. It has to be meaningful," said Josephine Kalipeni, executive director at Family Values @ Work, a national network of 27 state and local coalitions helping to advocate for such policies as paid sick days.

And possibly the health of their co-workers.

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