A model of accrual rates for paid sick leave mandates

Paid sick leave mandates require employers to provide a minimum amount of sick leave for employees with paid time off. However, studies on paid leave and models of leave-taking behavior have generally not considered a central component of these mandates: the rate of accrual of sick days or hours. Under these mandates hourly and low wage workers are more likely to gain access to paid leave, but it remains unclear how sensitive the typical worker's guaranteed paid leave is to changes in the rate of accrual. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate accrued paid leave hours from a basic national paid leave program using the US. Current Population Survey, and examine to two important questions: a) to what degree do changes in the accrual rate influence the hours of guaranteed paid leave accrued by workers, and b) who are the workers most impacted by the accrual rate. The approach provides a method for economic modelers of paid leave policies to explicitly examine the disparities generated by such policy designs using similar employment data at the state or local level, and more accurately incorporate leave eligibility into simulation models of worker leave.