Do Americans not get sick leave?? What’s your sick leave policy?

[Youngandfree]

Just that really and posting here for traffic? I’m forever seeing posts on Facebook etc from ppl in the US (and actually sometimes uk) about how they are sick all week and so they have no pay from work?? Surely if under a permanent contract then you have sick leave allowance, I can understand in some jobs (0 hour contracts etc). Genuinely interested, not criticizing! I have known ppl in jobs to be off for months at a time with back problems/stress etc and they have been paid. What’s your Sick leave policy?
Mine is as follows:
For an ordinary illness, a teacher has access to 183 days of paid sick leave in a rolling four year period. This is subject to a further limit of 92 days of full pay in any single twelve month period. After 92 days full pay sick leave in a twelve month period, the teacher will move on to half pay.

I get 80 hours of sick time per year. If I need more than that, it's short term or long-term disability. I get 300 hours of vacation time. I get 32 hours of personal time.

I pay $396 per month for my health insurance, that includes medical, dental, and vision. That comes off my gross pay, which is roughly $7500 per month, so it's not that large of a percentage, really. I pay $20 per visit for the doctor, and nothing out of pocket for the optician or dentist, unless I need more than the standard treatment.

I’ve never worked anywhere that didn’t offer full sickness pay (with various limits). I’ve never had any periods of sickness that weren’t on full pay. Where I am it is six months full pay, then drops to half pay but not sure for how long before going to SSP. That is automatic, not based on length of service.

Our catering company only give SSP which I think is awful and I wouldn’t work for a company who did this. Mind you... I’ve had one day of sick in the 4 years I’ve worked here so probably could have coped with SSP....

@BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou yes my DHs policy is the same as yours 6 months full and then it drops to half pay

In my first job, we accrued one day of paid sick leave OR holiday leave for each month we'd worked there.

The only days we had off were Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Years Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day.

So, if you wanted to take Christmas Eve and Boxing Day off, you couldn't get sick in November or December. If you wanted to go on a week's holiday, you couldn't be sick for five months.

Eventually you earned more; after your first year, you got an additional week's holiday (so, a day a month for sick/holiday leave and then five consecutive days).

It made for some truly miserable decisions about whether I'd go in sick or have to forgo, say, my trip home for Thanksgiving, which required at least one additional day off for travel. Loved the job; hated the policy.

But that's nothing compared to the at-will contracts you get for many of the jobs here. You can get fired for pretty much any reason at any time. Actually, the Supreme Court's currently hearing a case as we speak about whether you can legally fire someone for being gay (sexual orientation and gender identity is not clearly protected under the Civil Rights Act). You can't fire them for being a woman or being a person of color, at least not explicitly, but you may be able to fire them for being gay. Oh! And you can also fire them for refusing to comply with certain kinds of illegal orders. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment#By_state)

No mandated paid maternity leave. Weak union presence. Oh! And the average monthly contribution towards family health insurance for people whose employers offer health insurance (that is, not those who have their own businesses, or private contractors) is about $430/month.

(Oh, and this is in America.)

6 months full pay, 6 months half pay in any 12 month rolling period, we were TUPE'd across from another company, current companies sick scheme is derisory.

Its about time companies were forced to give min full pay sick periods, however, i suspect it will go the USA way, together with holiday and other employment benefits, we won't get the higher rates of pay though.

I live in the U.S., am a salaried employee, and we accrue sick time and paid vacation based on length of service. I work for a larger company, though; in my previous job I worked in a tiny office and the policy was, “As long as you don’t take advantage, I’m pretty flexible.” Huh. “Pretty flexible” was me taking a half a sick day in the seven years I’d worked there to date and getting screamed at for not going to the doctor on the weekend.

I’ve got it much better now. It's documented with HR so there's no question, and I’ve accrued more than a month of sick time, which we can also use to go to doctor’s appointments.

Celebelly is absolutely correct in that the American maternity leave policy is draconian.

If I was Standard I'd be crawling under a rock and staying there

This is another reason that Brexit is such an appalling idea.

Our workers rights on things like mat leave and sickness leave are underpinned by European law.

Once we're "free" from Europe, the Tories will get rid of such things fairly quickly I'd imagine, to make us more "competitive" with the rest of the world (i.e. roll back the state which is what they really want to do).

www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/eu-laws-maternity-rights-and-parental-leave

Am in the UK. 12 weeks full sick pay and then SSP. Statutory mat pay only.

I work in Germany - I have 12 months sick pay (full pay)

Also have 6 weeks holiday time, plus another 13 public holidays on top of that.

Bizarrely they also award you special days for things like milestone birthdays (one extra day that year), getting married (three extra days), and the birth of a grandchild (two days)

UK. I worked for a Local Authority at a FE college. six months sick leave on full pay, then the next 6 months on half pay, in 12 months.

I'm in the US. My employer provides generous paid time off. We don't differentiate the reasons for being off. So your sick leave comes from your PTO accumulation.

I was in a job for many years - middle management - where I had good pay, full time pay when off sick, and 6 months maternity leave full pay. I was quite lucky .. (This was the late 80's, and the 90s, and the noughties...) I also got SIX WEEKS holiday, plus all bank holidays. 10 days shutdown at Christmas, a week at Easter, the works. Plus, a good pension scheme and a good private health care plan.

The place made cutbacks and my department was one of the casualties. I got a decent redundancy package, but it wasn't gonna last forever, so around 2012, I got a job that is a decent job, and reasonable pay, but sadly gives you a shit deal if you are off long term sick... Just £95 a week sick pay. DH is the same. Not sure about maternity, but it's probably the same as most other places in the UK...

Luckily, we haven't had to worry about being off long term sick and have some decent savings, but when DH had a small op 3 years ago, he was off 8 weeks and only got £425-ish a month. We weathered that but it wasn't great.. 8 grand lost income over that 2 months. Basically, I don't know what we will do if he was off much longer (or if I was!) Cross that bridge when we come to it I guess.

I really feel like fab jobs like I had for those 23 years, where the employer REALLY looks after their staff, (and where you get lots of great perks,) are few and far between now. There seemed to be loads to choose from pre 21st century. Not now though. They're like gold dust.

I do believe USA have awful rights at work though. Some are OK, but many are awful. Especially for women - shocker!

A US colleague told me she was entitled to 3 weeks paid maternity and could take up to 6 weeks maternity in total (that included her 3 weeks paid and 3 weeks unpaid). Another US colleague came in and worked a half day, left at lunchtime and got married that afternoon. The Company didn't permit anytime off for his honeymoon. We worked in the European Branch and had much better conditions (only due to European law).

Nothing to do with sick leave but years ago an American friend of mine told me that her company had a no smoking policy. That didn't just mean in the office, it meant employees were not allowed to smoke anywhere. One day a woman was seen by another employee smoking in her garden and she was subsequently given the sack. I thought it was outrageous that people couldn't do what they wanted in their own homes.

Shit sorry I mean DH lost TWO grand over the 8 weeks (2 months,) not 8 grand!!

It was a grand a month he lost, not a grand a week. Sorry.

@SilverySurfer

Nothing to do with sick leave but years ago an American friend of mine told me that her company had a no smoking policy. That didn't just mean in the office, it meant employees were not allowed to smoke anywhere. One day a woman was seen by another employee smoking in her garden and she was subsequently given the sack. I thought it was outrageous that people couldn't do what they wanted in their own homes.

That's disgusting!

I can understand a sacking for punching someone or getting arrested, when you have your works uniform on or when you representing your workplace. But for smoking in your OWN garden? WTAF?

I’m not actually sure what our sickness policy is!! Been there 1.5 years but haven’t taken any time off sick. I’m pretty sure we get paid full pay for a certain amount of time, need a drs very after a week etc not sure when it would drop down to SSP. Previous job I didn’t take any sick days either and was there for just over 2 years. I did work from home so there a couple of times I would have called in sick if in an office but just sat in my pjs and got on with my work.

I’m UK. A couple of years ago I started a new job and few months in contracted Scarlett Fever. SSP only (which I think was £80pw). I had the enforced 2 days off (you’re still contagious 48 hours after taking antibiotics and it’s a public health notifiable disease). Then I went back in half days, using my small amount of accrued holiday to cover the other half day for 2 weeks.
It was horrendously awful and I was completely unproductive, pretty much just sat at my desk wrapped in my coat until it was time to go home. But I’d just got divorced and moved house so I had no money/choice. I left after 10 months - this being a big part of the reason.

I'm in the US, working for a large company. I get 20 days paid vacation (with the option of buying 5 additional days) plus 8 public holidays. We are still paid if we're sick. Also, I was out for 3 weeks following surgery and my time off was covered by FMLA - full paid, no need to save vacation time.

But don't let that interrupt the "America is really shitty and things are so much better in the U.K." diatribe...

I grew up in the US. In my only job that offered proper leave, I had 10 days leave per year. That was annual leave and sick leave combined. If I had the flu and was out for a week, no time for a holiday that year unless I took unpaid leave (if they would grant it!). I would have had no maternity pay. I also paid $600 a month for health insurance just for myself. This is for a job post-masters degree, so not a low skilled job. All very good reasons why we moved to the UK. It’s a really shit place to live.

When you say disability insurance you mean like Aflac, bliminy?

No I don't. I mean group plans from MetLife, Hartford, Lincoln, Unum, etc. They do generally cover all the conditions you mention, and they are not particularly expensive.

You can also buy disability insurance outside of an employer - DH and I have both done so. The difference is that they're not underwritten on a group basis, so they will exclude prior health conditions unlike group policies.

Or @arkela you could acknowledge that perhaps your company and experience isn't representative of most in the states, instead of getting weirdly defensive?

I’m in the UK
Our sick pay is determined by length of service.
I get 6 months full pay over a rolling 3 year period.
We also get something like 16 weeks paid maternity and can take up to the 12 months as standard. They’ve recently changed the paternity policy too so I think men get 2 weeks paternity pay.
We get 20 Days paid leave to begin, increasing to 28 days. Plus 8 bank hols.

We also get paid time off for routine things like smear tests etc.
If I’m stuck, I can take time off and work the hours back. I think I work for one of the better companies in the UK!