随着肆虐的新冠肺炎变种病毒感染全国各地的工人，数百万工作不提供带薪病假的人不得不在两者之间做出选择健康和他们的薪水。

虽然许多公司在疫情之初就制定了更为严格的病假政策，但随着疫苗的推出，其中一些政策已经缩减，尽管奥米克隆公司设法逃避了注射。与此同时，目前的劳动力短缺增加了工人的压力，如果他们负担不起呆在家里的费用，他们必须决定是否生病去上班。

“这是一个恶性循环，”哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院公共政策教授丹尼尔·施耐德说。“随着员工因生病外出而减少，这意味着在职人员有更多的工作要做，当他们依次生病时，他们甚至更不愿意请病假。”

低收入的小时工尤其脆弱。根据美国劳工统计局今年3月进行的一项全国员工福利补偿调查，近80%的私营部门员工至少有一天带薪病假。但是，工资最低的10%的工人中，只有33%的人获得带薪病假，相比之下，工资最高的10%的工人中有95%的人获得带薪病假。

哈佛大学的轮班项目(Shift Project)在去年秋天对大约6600名低时薪工人进行了一项调查，重点是不平等性。调查发现，在报告上个月生病的工人中，65%的人表示他们无论如何都会去工作。这比疫情之前85%的带病上班的人要低，但比在公共场合应该有的比例要高得多健康危机。施耐德说，由于omicron和劳动力短缺，情况可能会变得更糟。

此外，施耐德指出，在疫情期间，疫情之前休带薪病假的员工比例几乎没有变化——分别为50%和51%。他进一步指出，许多接受调查的贫困劳动者甚至没有400美元的应急资金，随着儿童税收抵免的到期，家庭现在将更加经济拮据，儿童税收抵免每月在家庭口袋里放几百美元。

美联社采访了一名上个月在新墨西哥州开始新工作的工人，他在本周早些时候开始出现类似COVID的症状。这名工人要求不透露姓名，因为这可能会危及他们的就业，他请了一天假去接受测试，又请了两天假等待结果。

一名主管打电话告诉工人，只有当COVID测试结果为阳性时，他们才有资格享受带薪病假。如果检测结果为阴性，工人将不得不休无薪假，因为他们没有积累足够的病假时间。

“我认为我保护我的同事是正确的，”这名工人说，他仍在等待结果，并估计如果他们的检测呈阴性，每天将损失160美元的工作损失。“现在我希望我只是去工作，什么也没说。”

交易员乔在加州的一名工人也要求匿名，因为他们不想拿自己的工作冒险。他说，该公司让工人累积带薪休假，他们可以用这些休假或病假。但是一旦这些时间用完了，员工们往往会觉得拿不起无薪假期。

这位工作人员说:“我认为，现在很多人带着疾病或他们所谓的‘过敏’来上班，因为他们觉得自己别无选择。

交易员乔提供危险津贴，直到去年春天，如果工人有与COVID相关的症状，他甚至会休假。但是这位工人说这些福利已经结束了。该公司也不再要求顾客在所有门店佩戴口罩。

其他公司也同样缩短了他们早些时候在疫情提供的病假时间。该国最大的传统食品连锁店克罗格(Kroger)正在终止为未接种疫苗的受薪工人提供的一些福利，试图迫使更多的人在新冠肺炎病例再次上升时接受注射。在克罗格登记的未接种疫苗的工人健康如果他们被感染，护理计划将不再有资格获得长达两周的带薪紧急休假——这一政策是在去年疫苗不可用时实施的。

与此同时，美国最大的零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)正在将与大流行相关的带薪休假削减一半——从两周削减至一周——此前，美国疾病控制和预防中心(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)降低了对检测呈阳性后没有症状的人的隔离要求。

越来越多的州给工人们提供了一些救济。根据州立法机构全国会议的数据，在过去十年中，14个州和哥伦比亚特区通过了法律或投票措施，要求雇主提供带薪病假。

然而，在联邦方面，运动已经停止。国会在2020年春天通过了一项法律，要求大多数雇主为患有COVID相关疾病的员工提供带薪病假。但该要求于同年12月31日到期。根据美国劳工部的数据，国会后来延长了自愿提供带薪病假的雇主的税收抵免，但延长期限在9月底失效。

去年11月，美国众议院通过了乔·拜登总统的“重建得更好”计划的一个版本，该计划要求雇主为生病或照顾家庭成员的员工提供20天的带薪假期。但该法案的命运在参议院还不确定。

“我们不能做拼凑之类的事情。它必须是整体的。它必须有意义，”家庭价值@工作的执行董事约瑟芬·卡利佩尼说，这是一个由27个州和地方联盟组成的全国性网络，帮助倡导带薪病假等政策。

根据洛杉矶加州大学世界政策分析中心2020年的一项研究，美国是全球仅有的11个没有任何带薪病假联邦授权的国家之一。

另一方面，像《房屋清洁英雄》的首席执行官道恩·克劳利这样的小企业主在员工生病外出时无力支付工资。但克劳利正试图以其他方式提供帮助。她最近开着一个没有车的清洁工去了附近的一个测试点。她后来给清洁工买了一些药、橙汁和橘子。

克劳利说:“如果他们出局了，我会尽力给他们钱，但同时我的公司必须生存下去。如果公司倒闭，就没有人工作。"

即使有带薪病假，员工也不总是意识到这一点。

英格丽德·维洛里奥(Ingrid Vilorio)在加州卡斯特罗谷(Castro Valley)一家Box餐厅的杰克餐厅工作，去年3月开始感到不舒服，很快检测出COVID呈阳性。维洛里奥通知了一名主管，但主管没有告诉她，根据加州法律，她有资格享受带薪病假——以及补充的COVID假。

维洛里奥说，她的医生告诉她休息15天，但她决定只休息10天，因为她有账单要付。几个月后，一名同事告诉维洛里奥，她休假期间欠了病假工资。Vilorio和她的同事通过致力于快餐工人工会化的组织“争取15美元”向县卫生部门报告了这家餐馆。在那之后不久，她得到了欠薪。

但说西班牙语的维洛里奥通过翻译表示，问题依然存在。她说，工人们仍在生病，而且常常不敢大声说话。

“没有健康，我们就无法工作，”她说。“有人告诉我们，我们是一线工人，但我们没有受到这样的待遇。”

Stay home or work sick? Omicron poses a conundrum

As the raging omicron variant of COVID-19 infects workers across the nation, millions of those whose jobs don't provide paid sick days are having to choose between theirhealthand their paycheck.

While many companies instituted more robust sick leave policies at the beginning of the pandemic, some of those have since been scaled back with the rollout of the vaccines, even though omicron has managed to evade the shots. Meanwhile, the current labor shortage is adding to the pressure of workers having to decide whether to show up to their job sick if they can't afford to stay home.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Daniel Schneider, professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. “As staffing gets depleted because people are out sick, that means that those that are on the job have more to do and are even more reluctant to call in sick when they in turn get sick.”

Low-income hourly workers are especially vulnerable. Nearly 80% of all private sector workers get at least one paid sick day, according to a national compensation survey of employee benefits conducted in March by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But only 33% of workers whose wages are at the bottom 10% get paid sick leave, compared with 95% in the top 10%.

A survey this past fall of roughly 6,600 hourly low-wage workers conducted by Harvard’s Shift Project, which focuses on inequality, found that 65% of those workers who reported being sick in the last month said they went to work anyway. That's lower than the 85% who showed up to work sick before the pandemic, but much higher than it should be in the middle of a publichealthcrisis. Schneider says it could get worse because of omicron and the labor shortage.

What's more, Schneider noted that the share of workers with paid sick leave before the pandemic barely budged during the pandemic — 50% versus 51% respectively. He further noted many of the working poor surveyed don’t even have $400 in emergency funds, and families will now be even more financially strapped with the expiration of the child tax credit, which had put a few hundred dollars in families’ pockets every month.

The Associated Press interviewed one worker who started a new job with the state of New Mexico last month and started experiencing COVID-like symptoms earlier in the week. The worker, who asked not to be named because it might jeopardize their employment, took a day off to get tested and two more days to wait for the results.

A supervisor called and told the worker they would qualify for paid sick days only if the COVID test turns out to be positive. If the test is negative, the worker will have to take the days without pay, since they haven’t accrued enough time for sick leave.

“I thought I was doing the right thing by protecting my co-workers,” said the worker, who is still awaiting the results and estimates it will cost $160 per day of work missed if they test negative. "Now I wish I just would’ve gone to work and not said anything.”

A Trader Joe’s worker in California, who also asked not to be named because they didn’t want to risk their job, said the company lets workers accrue paid time off that they can use for vacations or sick days. But once that time is used up, employees often feel like they can’t afford to take unpaid days.

“I think many people now come to work sick or with what they call ‘allergies’ because they feel they have no other choice,” the worker said.

Trader Joe’s offered hazard pay until last spring, and even paid time off if workers had COVID-related symptoms. But the worker said those benefits have ended. The company also no longer requires customers to wear masks in all of its stores.

Other companies are similarly curtailing sick time that they offered earlier in the pandemic. Kroger, the country’s biggest traditional grocery chain, is ending some benefits for unvaccinated salaried workers in an attempt to compel more of them to get the jab as COVID-19 cases rise again. Unvaccinated workers enrolled in Kroger'shealthcare plan will no longer be eligible to receive up to two weeks paid emergency leave if they become infected — a policy that was put into place last year when vaccines were unavailable.

Meanwhile, Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, is slashing pandemic-related paid leave in half — from two weeks to one — after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced isolation requirements for people who don’t have symptoms after they test positive.

Workers have received some relief from a growing number of states. In the last decade, 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or ballot measures requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

On the federal front, however, the movement has stalled. Congress passed a law in the spring of 2020 requiring most employers to provide paid sick leave for employees with COVID-related illnesses. But the requirement expired on Dec. 31 of that same year. Congress later extended tax credits for employers who voluntarily provide paid sick leave, but the extension lapsed at the end of September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In November, the U.S. House passed a version of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan that would require employers to provide 20 days of paid leave for employees who are sick or caring for a family member. But the fate of that bill is uncertain in the Senate.

“We can’t do a patchwork sort of thing. It has to be holistic. It has to be meaningful," said Josephine Kalipeni, executive director at Family Values @ Work, a national network of 27 state and local coalitions helping to advocate for such policies as paid sick days.

The U.S. is one of only 11 countries worldwide without any federal mandate for paid sick leave, according to a 2020 study by the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

On the flipside are small business owners like Dawn Crawley, CEO of House Cleaning Heroes, who can’t afford to pay workers when they are out sick. But Crawley is trying to help in other ways. She recently drove one cleaner who didn't have a car to a nearby testing site. She later bought the cleaner some medicine, orange juice and oranges.

“If they are out, I try to give them money but at the same time my company has got to survive,” Crawley said. ″If the company goes under, no one has work."

Even when paid sick leave is available, workers aren’t always made aware of it.

Ingrid Vilorio, who works at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Castro Valley, California, started feeling sick last March and soon tested positive for COVID. Vilorio alerted a supervisor, who didn’t tell her she was eligible for paid sick leave — as well as supplemental COVID leave — under California law.

Vilorio said her doctor told her to take 15 days off, but she decided to take just 10 because she had bills to pay. Months later, a co-worker told Vilorio she was owed sick pay for the time she was off. Working through Fight for $15, a group that works to unionize fast food workers, Vilorio and her colleagues reported the restaurant to the county health department. Shortly after that, she was given back pay.

But Vilorio, who speaks Spanish, said through a translator that problems persist. Workers are still getting sick, she said, and are often afraid to speak up.

“Without our health, we can’t work," she said. "We’re told that we’re front line workers, but we’re not treated like it.”