I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1784 
To allow Americans to earn paid sick time so that they can address their 
own health needs and the health needs of their families. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 14, 2019 
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. HECK, 
Mr. KHANNA, Mrs. DINGELL, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Miss RICE of 
New York, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Mr. 
LOWENTHAL, Ms. MOORE, Mr. PETERS, Mr. SABLAN, Mrs. WATSON 
COLEMAN, Mr. COHEN, Mr. MORELLE, Mr. POCAN, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. 
RASKIN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Ms. HAALAND, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. CUMMINGS, 
Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. FRANKEL, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. GOMEZ, Ms. SPEIER, 
Mr. MCGOVERN, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Mr. FOSTER, Ms. OMAR, Mr. LAN-
GEVIN, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. LEVIN of Michigan, Ms. WEXTON, 
Mr. COOPER, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. DEAN, Mr. CICILLINE, 
Mr. DEUTCH, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. NADLER, Mr. 
TONKO, Ms. GABBARD, Ms. NORTON, Ms. WILD, Mr. BRENDAN F. 
BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. PALLONE, Ms. ESHOO, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, 
Ms. BROWNLEY of California, Mr. TAKANO, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY 
of New York, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. 
KELLY
of 
Illinois, 
Mr. 
PERLMUTTER, 
Mr. 
DESAULNIER, 
Ms. 
VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, 
Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. SOTO, Mr. COURTNEY, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. WILSON of 
Florida, Mr. BERA, Mr. GALLEGO, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mrs. LOWEY, 
Mr. SARBANES, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. BROWN of Maryland, 
Mr. KILMER, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. NORCROSS, Mr. RUIZ, Ms. MCCOLLUM, 
Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Ms. 
FUDGE, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KEATING, Ms. TITUS, Mr. MCEACHIN, Mrs. 
HAYES, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, 
Mr. RUSH, Mr. AGUILAR, Mrs. CRAIG, Mr. KENNEDY, Ms. MENG, Ms. 
UNDERWOOD, Mr. LUJA´N, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. YARMUTH, 
Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. SEWELL of 
Alabama, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. RYAN, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. HIGGINS of New 
York, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. BEYER, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. 
CLAY, Mrs. MURPHY, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Mr. SCHNEIDER, Mrs. DAVIS of 
California, Ms. WATERS, Ms. DELBENE, and Ms. KUSTER of New 
Hampshire) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committees on 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6652
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
House Administration, and Oversight and Reform, for a period to be sub-
sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of 
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To allow Americans to earn paid sick time so that they 
can address their own health needs and the health needs 
of their families. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy Families Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Working people need time to meet their own 
health care needs and to care for family members. 
The absence of paid sick time has forced working 
people to make untenable choices between needed in-
come and jobs on the one hand and caring for their 
own and their family’s health on the other. It is in 
the national interest to ensure that all working peo-
ple can care for their own health and the health of 
their families while prospering at work. 
(2) Twenty-nine percent of the private sector 
workforce and 9 percent of the public sector work-
force lack paid sick time. Millions more theoretically 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
have access to sick time, but have not been on the 
job long enough to use it. Millions more lack sick 
time they can use to care for a sick child or ill fam-
ily member. 
(3) Working people without paid sick days are 
more likely to go to work sick and delay or forgo 
needed health care. A 2016 study in the journal 
Health Affairs found that working adults without 
paid sick days are 3 times more likely to forgo med-
ical care for themselves, and 1.6 times more likely 
to forgo medical care for their family, compared to 
working adults with paid sick days. Lack of paid 
sick days is also a barrier to receiving annual health 
screenings and preventive care, according to a 2017 
study in the American Journal of Nursing. 
(4) Nearly 1 in 4 parents without paid sick 
time reports sending a sick child to school or child 
care because the parent has to go to work. When 
children go to school and child care sick, they risk 
their own health and that of other children, teach-
ers, and administrators. Research suggests that 
schools play a key role in transmitting contagious ill-
nesses like influenza. 
(5) A 2012 study published in the American 
Journal of Public Health found that a lack of work-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
place policies like paid sick days contributed to an 
additional 5,000,000 cases of influenza-like illness 
during the H1N1 pandemic of 2009. 
(6) A National Bureau of Economic Research 
analysis examining influenza rates following the im-
plementation of comprehensive paid sick time laws 
in 7 major cities in the United States found that 
when workers gained access to paid sick time in 
those cities, the general influenza rate in the popu-
lation decreased by 5.5 to 6.5 percent. This analysis 
estimates that those laws helped prevent about 100 
influenza-like infections per week for every 100,000 
people. 
(7) Paid sick days contribute to more cost-effec-
tive use of health care resources. A 2011 study by 
the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found 
that a universal paid sick days policy would reduce 
preventable visits to the emergency room and result 
in cost savings of $1,100,000,000 per year, includ-
ing $500,000,000 in savings for public health insur-
ance programs like Medicare and Medicaid. 
(8) The American Productivity Audit completed 
in 2003 found that lost productivity due to illness 
costs $226,000,000,000 ($308,000,000,000 in 2019 
dollars) annually, and that 71 percent of that cost 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
stems from presenteeism—the practice of employees 
coming to work while ill. Studies in the Journal of 
Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the 
Journal of the American Medical Association show 
that presenteeism is a larger productivity drain than 
either absenteeism or short-term disability. 
(9) Working while sick also increases a worker’s 
probability of suffering an injury on the job. A 2012 
study published by the American Journal of Public 
Health found that workers with access to paid sick 
leave were 28 percent less likely than workers with-
out paid sick leave to suffer nonfatal occupational 
injuries. 
(10) Workers’ access to paid sick time varies 
dramatically by wage level, as demonstrated by the 
following: 
(A) For private sector workers— 
(i) for workers in the lowest quartile 
of earners, 55 percent lack paid sick time; 
(ii) for workers in the next 2 quar-
tiles, 27 and 17 percent, respectively, lack 
paid sick time; and 
(iii) even for workers in the highest 
quartile, 10 percent lack paid sick time. 
(B) For public sector workers— 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
(i) for workers in the lowest quartile 
of earners, 21 percent lack paid sick time; 
(ii) for workers in the next 2 quar-
tiles, 5 and 3 percent, respectively, lack 
paid sick time; and 
(iii) for workers in the highest quar-
tile, 5 percent lack paid sick time. 
(11) Workers’ access to paid sick days also var-
ies depending on their occupation and race. For ex-
ample, more than 80 percent of workers in food 
preparation and serving occupations lack access to 
paid sick days, compared to only 23 percent of work-
ers in management occupations. More than half of 
Latino workers and nearly half of Native American 
or Alaskan Native workers do not have access to 
paid sick days, compared to nearly 40 percent of 
White and Black workers. 
(12) According to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, more than 1 in 3 women and 
more than 1 in 4 men in America report having ex-
perienced rape, physical abuse, or some form of un-
wanted sexual contact at some point in their lives. 
Women and men of color are even more likely to re-
port being impacted by intimate partner violence. 
Too many people, and especially women, are forced 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
to risk losing their jobs or critical income when they 
need to take time away from work to address domes-
tic-violence-related issues, such as obtaining a re-
straining order or finding housing, in order to avoid 
or prevent physical or sexual abuse. 
(13) Without paid sick time that can be used 
to address the effects of domestic violence, these vic-
tims are in grave danger of losing their jobs. In a 
2018 survey of domestic violence survivors, nearly 3⁄4 
(73 percent) reported that financial problems forced 
them to remain with their abusers longer than they 
wanted or to return to their abusers after having 
left, and more than half (53 percent) said they lost 
a job because of the abuse. The loss of employment 
can be particularly devastating for victims of domes-
tic violence, who often need economic security to en-
sure safety. 
(14) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention has estimated that intimate partner violence 
costs over $700,000,000 annually due to the victims’ 
lost productivity in employment. 
(15) A 2018 study published in the American 
Journal of Orthopsychiatry found that workers with-
out paid sick leave benefits have higher levels of psy-
chological distress and are 1.45 times more likely to 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
02:37 Apr 02, 2019
Jkt 089200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1784.IH
H1784
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS