Worried about your family getting the H1N1 flu? Who isn’t? Every day seems to bring changes in which age group is more vulnerable, yet if you’ve called your pediatrician’s office to try to get a shot, you know that the vaccines aren’t coming in fast enough.

We all know that hand washing is our best defense against the flu, but now there’s a plan afoot to tackle the H1N1 pandemic from new angle that makes perfect sense. Under a bill proposed in Congress Tuesday, employers who tell workers to stay home when they are sick will have to give them paid time off for up to five days, Reuters reports. The emergency law would cover the H1N1 flu and other infectious diseases.

Now there’s a real incentive for people to stay home when they’re sick. We’ve all been told to keep our kids home from school when they’re sick and to do the same when we’re ill. The problem is that parents often don’t get paid when they’re sick, so they must choose between earning money and infecting others (while going without rest).

Paid sick leave is not required by U.S. laws. If it were, I suspect we’d have a lot less illness being spread.
George Miller, the California congressman who introduced the bill and chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, told Reuters that at least 50 million U.S. workers don’t get sick pay, and many of them are in low-paying jobs with direct contact with the public, such as the food-service and hospitality industry, schools and health care fields.

If these workers were paid to rest and get better when they were sick, we’d immediately decrease our chances of catching the flu. And wouldn’t that be an economic and personal gift: Less sickness spread at work ultimately means fewer people taking sick leave. Fewer sick people and more paid sick leave make for happier workers and, ultimately, less stressed families.

Just moved to the Triangle and looking for local health departments, hospitals, physicians, urgent care clinics and emergency centers? Find them – as well as information on schools, shopping, local activities, child care and more – in the digital Ultimate Family Resource Guide at CarolinaParent.com.