The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we have seen in recent history. In a short amount of time, this public health crisis has transformed our realities, shattered societal norms, and exposed glaring gaps in our system. This pandemic has taught us some tough lessons, one being that we don’t have many of the necessary provisions in place to protect people, our communities, and the economy.

More than 40 percent, or nearly half, of Colorado’s workforce is currently not able to earn a single paid sick day. Many of these workers are on the frontlines — meaning the people who are stocking our shelves, keeping us fed, and caring for us during this pandemic. Without paid sick days, they are forced to choose between their income and their health, and they are much more likely to go to work sick and expose others. 

This situation hurts all of us.

In order to keep our communities healthy, businesses open and our economy on the road to recovery, it is critical that employees are able stay home when they are sick. That’s why we are proud to have sponsored Senate Bill 205, the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, ​along with Sen. Jeff Bridges and Rep. Yadira Caraveo, to ensure all hardworking Coloradans can earn paid sick days.

Earned paid sick days are a paid, job-protected benefit to ensure people can stay home to care for their health or a family member’s during a short-term illness. Under our bill, employees at businesses with more than 15 employees will earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked starting in 2021, and employees at businesses with 15 or less employees will begin earning leave starting in 2022. Employees in Colorado will be able to earn a maximum of 48 hours of paid sick time per year. Employers are not required to pay the balance of sick days to employees when they leave, and because days are earned by employees, there will be a gradual phase-in of this benefit. 

When people can earn paid sick days, it keeps all of us healthier. The reality is that people who can earn paid sick days are more likely to go to the doctor and get medicine, and their kids are more likely to receive check-ups and pre-emptive care. On the other hand, families that can’t earn paid sick days are twice as likely to send their children to school sick.  

When people can earn paid sick days, it keeps businesses healthy, safe and open. We know the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Colorado businesses hard. As we work to reopen the economy, ensuring the health and safety of employees and customers will be critical to keeping our small businesses’ doors open.

We want our economy and businesses to prosper, and paid sick days will help to prevent us from ending up back where we started in March. In fact, this proposal is likely to strengthen our economy. Studies have shown that employees working while sick costs the national economy approximately $160 billion per year — and that was before coronavirus. Studies also show that providing paid sick days helps businesses benefit from higher employee productivity, healthier workplaces and lower employee turnover.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado communities have made it clear that they believe access to earned paid sick days is critical to both our return to health and our economic recovery. A recent poll found that 78 percent of Coloradans — young and old, Democrats and Republicans, from the Front Range to the Western Slope to the eastern plains — support providing paid sick leave for all Colorado employees. This includes 70 percent of households that run their own small businesses.

To fight this virus and future illnesses, Colorado needs the security of knowing that people are staying home when they’re sick, and that means allowing hardworking Coloradans to earn paid sick days. Earned paid sick days will keep our communities healthier, businesses open and the economy on the road to recovery. We weren’t ready for this pandemic. With measures like this, we won’t make that mistake again.

KC Becker, a Boulder Democrat, is speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, is majority leader of the Colorado Senate.