NYC Sick Leave Disparities

Author: Nikko Bilitza

80% of Americans have access to paid sick leave (PSL) through their employer however there is no federal PSL law and thus some sections of the workforce lack PSL. Seeking to rectify this localities have enacted sub-national PSL laws. However, non-compliance, limited enforcement resources, insufficient awareness, and/or exceptions for employer types threaten to undercut the effectiveness of these policies. To better understand lingering inequalities in access to paid sick leave, I analyzed access to PSL in New York City. I used data from the Poverty Tracker, a dataset of surveys focused on work and poverty in New York City maintained by the Robin Hood Foundation and Columbia University. Using data from 1,286 New York City workers (2015–2017), I trained a logistic regression model to predict PSL access based on specific worker characteristics.