According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately one-third of all workers don't get any sick leave. The numbers from the independent Institute for Women's Policy Research are even higher, finding that 48 percent of all US workers have no sick leave. The U.S. Chamber's reaction to this? Quit complaining -- because according to them, 83 percent of private sector workers can simply use vacation time if they get H1N1. After all, who needs a sunny trip to the Caribbean this winter when you've got body aches, a hacking cough and a high fever to keep you warm?

The Chamber argues that just looking at paid sick leave doesn't paint an accurate picture of "how many employees currently receive paid leave that could be used for H1N1 purposes." The Chamber thinks access to illness leave encompasses combining the unduplicated total of paid vacation, family leave, personal leave and sick leave a worker receives from their employer. So even if you're one of the the 57 million working Americans who currently have no paid sick days and fall ill, just cash in your hard-earned time off to rest at home until you're no longer contagious!

For service workers, access to illness leave is 67 percent. Using the Chamber's "access to illness leave" formula, one-third of service workers still aren't covered at all. These are the janitors, bus drivers and sandwich makers who clean your office, drive your kids to school and help feed your families, who can't take a day off from work without fear of losing their job if they or their children contract H1N1.

Using the study the Chamber treats as their sick-leave bible, these numbers are even more discouraging for low-wage workers. Only 49 percent of low-wage workers have access to paid sick leave or personal leave or family leave or vacation--and thus are more likely to go to work even if they are sick or their child is sick.

Just how out of touch is the US Chamber with the necessity of paid sick leave for H1N1?
They haven't considered the millions of working men and women who support a family and have children. Because according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, nine out of every 10 parents who work in the private sector do not receive paid family leave, something that would become critical if their child showed symptoms of swine flu and needed to stay home. So the numbers the Chamber is using bank on the fact that a parent doesn't use up all their allotted vacation and personal days for they get sick or need to take time off--because this allotment has to include time off for if their children fall ill too.

Even using the Chamber's qualifications of what kind of paid time off should be considered sick leave (read: all of it), too many workers do not have even the option of taking a paid flu vacation. And staying home if it means you don't get paid is simply an impossibility for a lot of working men and women, especially for families struggling to make ends meet in this tough economy. There's clearly a conflict here between what's good for the Chamber--and what's good for the public.