TOW #7 - The High Costs of Not Offering Paid Sick Leave

In Austin Frakt’s essay The High Costs of Not Offering Paid Sick Leave, Frakt writes about the detrimental effects of not providing workers with paid sick leave.  He mentions how many types of worker, ones in the office to ones in restaurants, go to work despite their illness.  This proves to be a problem when diseases are spread around the workplace and possibly to customers.  Frakt is a credible aithor because the end of his essay it is said that he is a health economist and has several governmental and academic affiliations.  In addition, he blogs at The Incidental Economist, which is a health services research blog.  Frakt’s audience in this text are workers that have a higher position in businesses.  This can include managers and owners of businesses or corporation.  This is his audience because he is listing examples of the negative effects of unpaid sick leave.  To convince his audience that paid sick leave is better, he mentions that “paid sick leave slows the spread of disease” (Frakt 7) and that “each week about 1.5 million Americans without paid sick leave go to work despite feeling ill.  At least half of the employees of restaurants and hospitals… go to work when they have a cold or the flu” (Frakt 2).  Using these statistics make the readers feel gross and afraid of businesses where there is no paid sick leave.  This is because readers are afraid to visit businesses with ill workers and have a fear of contracting their disease.  By appealing to the reader’s reason, they feel that it is necessary to offer paid leave in order to combat the spread of disease in the work place.  To the reader, it only makes sense to do that.  Frakt’s essay is very relevant to news now because just recently Chipotle had E Coli spread from its food to its customers.  The High Costs of Not Offering Paid Sick Leave convinces readers to offer paid leave to their workers and not risk the spread of disease.