With the passing of mandatory paid sick leave by the
Maryland legislature in January 2018 the idea for this post began as a look at
the history of sick leave in the American workplace. Research revealed the
reason why there are paid leave advocates. Leave from work, whether for sick or
personal, is a relatively new concept as it applies to the American workplace.
Still, this is probably a good topic for a little background.
During the agriculture phase of the America people worked as
the farm dictated. Once the Industrial Revolution arrived factories sprung up with
no shortage of workers. People lined up waiting for jobs. Employers could set
wages and hours are they saw fit. There was little to no regulation. People
worked six days a week for pennies an hour in deplorable conditions. If you
missed work you weren’t paid or lost your job. These conditions continued well
into the 20th century until a president floated a new concept.
Starting a conversation
The idea of employee paid leave in the United States started
with President William Taft in 1910 who thought that workers should have three
months of vacation per year. Congress never bought into it but the conversation
was started. Sixteen years later the work schedule began to change. The Ford
Motor Company was one of the first, if not the biggest, company to offer
employees a five day, 40 hour workweek. The policy went into effect in may 1926
at the urging of Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, who thought every man needed more
than one a day a week for rest.
By the 1930’s, countries around the world had begun adopting
paid time off for employees. The U.S. Department of Labor took up the fight
again creating the Committee of Vacations with Pay to study why the U.S was so
far behind the rest of the industrialized world. Nothing came from this
committee.
It would be sixty some years later before the U.S government
made significant changes. In 1993 the passage of the Family Medical Leave Act
(FMLA) mandated twelve weeks of unpaid time off for workers to attend to their
own or a family members medical issues. Leave from work agreements were, and
still are, between employer and employee with no mandate for payment. While
FMLA provided for leave without retribution from employers, the leave was still
unpaid.
There is not a statutory requirement for paid vacation in
the U.S. Individual employers decide on what leave and type of leave to offer
employees. Employer’s decisions on leave run the spectrum. A few companies are
experimenting with unlimited leave while the majority offer some sort of paid
time off. There are still small percentages that offer no leave.
Regarding statutory paid sick leave, currently nine U.S.
states mandate it (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington). Expect that number to grow in
the coming years.
Please share this and any post. See the blog archive for
other posts about employee benefits.
