Only a third of workers at the largest service industry employers in Virginia have access to paid sick leave, according to a report by researchers at Harvardâs Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and the University of California San Francisco.
Advocacy groups, who hope the finding will propel the General Assembly to pass long-debated paid time off legislation, called the report particularly notable because it contradicts arguments made by business groups, who have told lawmakers most large employers already provide the benefit.
âWe might assume that big firms with extensive HR systems and potentially deep pockets of course already provide paid sick leave, but thatâs not true,â said Daniel Schneider, an author on the report and professor of public policy and sociology at Harvard University. âLarge shares of workers at these firms report they donât have access at their jobs.â