In case you get the bird flu

Hugely popular with conservatives of all stripes, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was (and is) a modest, smart Midwesterner who didn't shy away from the limelight but never chased after it, either. His critics complained that he lacked a pulse, but I liked his Gary Cooper style.

I guess that's what made his warnings in 2006 about the possibility of an avian flu pandemic feel more real. "I think we're at an unprecedented risk that our fellow citizens will not be ready for," Daniels said.

Lucky for us, the bug never did bite, but even the hardiest of Hoosiers was pretty nervous for a while. Scary thing is, it could easily happen again.

In fact, a study making the rounds in the past couple days says the latest bird flu virus – this one's called the N7N9 – could be easily transmitted between humans.

Is the concern overblown? Perhaps. But by mid-July or so, more than more 130 people in China had been infected with H7N9, and at least 37 had died.

What does any of this have to do with employee benefits?

Actually, quite a lot, when you stop to consider that the United States is the only major industrialized nation without a national paid sick-leave policy.

People who work at a job without paid sick time come to work sick. And then guess what? They make everyone else sick. You've seen the movie; it's how pandemics spread.

An estimated 38 percent of U.S. workers, or almost 40 million people, lack any paid sick leave.

I don't know how Gov. Daniels might feel about that, but another smart Midwestern politician, Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, hopes to change this with the Healthy Families Act.

Harkin's legislation would allow workers to earn paid sick days that can be used to recover from a short-term illness. They also could use the time to care for a sick family member, obtain preventive or diagnostic treatment, or seek help if they have been victims of domestic violence.

Passing this bill into law would mean joining 145 other countries – Japan, Singapore, Denmark, etc. – that provide paid sick days for short- or long-term illnesses.

We've all heard employers complain about paid sick-leave laws. Strange thing is, in states where such laws are now on the books, many of these business owners apparently have discovered they were, in fact, overreacting.

Dismiss it if you will, but the New York Times took care recently to check back with employers who were among those wringing their hands about new paid sick-leave laws taking effect in their cities.

"Basically, it's just going to make it more expensive to operate your business," Bill Stone, owner of a café in San Francisco, was quoted saying in 2007. "Small business is going to have to pass that cost onto their customers."

Six years later, according to the Times, Stone's tune has changed.

"As a small restaurant business, it's really hard to make money, and when they add another requirement, it makes you nervous," he said. "But all and all, I actually think it's a good thing."

The same sort of remarks could be heard from business owners in the District of Columbia and Connecticut, places where paid sick-leave laws had been on the books at least a year.

The good news also is that lawmakers and regulators have been careful to include exclusions and exemptions of all sorts to help ease the pain for smaller employers. There's no doubt paid sick leave still costs employers money. Among other things, they sometimes find themselves paying the temporary worker who comes in to fill in for the ill employee, as well as the person who's out sick.

A pandemic of one kind or another might kill us off anyway. Regardless, paid sick time is the only humane way to run a business.

In case you get the bird flu

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In case you get the bird flu

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