Past research demonstrates favorable health and economic outcomes for workers with access to paid sick leave compared to workers without access. Access to paid sick leave in the United States, however, is highly uneven. This brief: 1) summarizes a study of private sector workers employed in Missouri and private sector, public-facing essential workers who lack access to paid sick leave; and, 2) estimates new instances of paid leave used by private sector workers employed in Missouri under a hypothetical statewide mandated paid leave program that gives three days of paid leave to workers employed by small employers (<15 employees) and five days of paid leave to workers employed by large employers (15+ employees). The U.S. Department of Labor Microsimulation Model on Worker Leave (Worker PLUS) was utilized to generate these estimates and incorporated a range of socio-demographic and employment characteristics to produce a fine-grained analysis of private sector workers employed in Missouri who lack access to paid leave and who would use new instances of paid leave under a 3/5 policy scenario.
Estimating Lack of Access to Paid Leave and Use of Paid Leave Among Workers Employed in Missouri: Summary
