Paid sick leave could boost business and help healthcare, but Ontario won't act
The Ford government has repeatedly refused to adopt a permanent paid sick leave program for Ontario workers, despite growing evidence of the policy’s cost-effectiveness and benefits to healthcare systems.
The Ontario government ended its temporary COVID-19 sick leave program in 2023, reverting to the pre-pandemic norm and leaving workers with three unpaid sick days per year. Ontario now lags behind British Columbia and Quebec, which offer five and two paid sick days per year — on top of unpaid days.
Business and health advocates say the government’s reluctance to change the status quo may actually be driving up costs to employers and straining an already overburdened health system.
Aaron Binder, Director of the Better Way Alliance, says fears over negative impacts on businesses are actually at odds with the data, showing initial costs of rolling out sick leave balanced out by long-term savings. The Better Way Alliance is a coalition of 100 small businesses promoting ethical employment practices. It issued a statement late last year in support of paid sick leave.
Binder and his group have been asking the Ontario government for a permanent paid sick leave program since 2021. “The cost of paid leave to businesses is minimal compared to workplace illness outbreaks,” he said.
A study of U.S. companies found that offering paid sick leave boosted companies’ profits. Costs related to turnover and training new staff — which can be a drain on small businesses — were also reduced.
Christie Johnson, of Little Mushroom Catering in Cambridge, has firsthand experience with the business impacts of paid sick leave. Little Mushroom offers paid sick days to 35 core staff.
Johnson says the savings far outweigh the costs, and that without paid sick leave, more people take time off for illnesses, triggering a vicious cycle of staffing issues: remaining staff are overworked, burnout takes hold, and people start looking for work elsewhere.
“You end up needing to hire more people. It’s much cheaper for a company to retain someone than it is to hire and train someone new, Johnson said. “If someone’s sick, we don’t want them coming in.”
Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, says even if low-income workers have access to unpaid sick time, many will go to work while sick because they can’t afford the time off.
“I don’t want someone going to work with COVID, with influenza, with RSV, and spreading that to everyone else in the workplace,” Reimer said. "We have been telling people for years 'stay home when you're sick.' If we're asking people to do that for the benefit of society, we also need to support them to be able to do that.”
Reimer also noted that paid leave policies can lead to significant reductions in health system usage, easing pressure on hospitals.
An impact analysis of paid sick leave was conducted on Ontario construction sites in 2022, when the pandemic program was still in effect. It found that savings and productivity generated from having fewer people sick at work outweighed costs to employers. The analysis didn’t include added government savings in the form of reduced health spending, but in New York State, hospital visits for pediatric respiratory infections dropped by 18 per cent after paid leave was introduced.
During the 2024 U.S. general election, three Republican-leaning states (Missouri, Nebraska and Alaska) approved paid sick leave through direct ballot measures, suggesting strong support from voters isn’t limited to the political left.
Prior to the start of the 2025 Ontario election, Labour Minister David Piccini declined to comment on whether the government is open to introducing paid sick leave, or on its assessment of the relationship between mandated paid leave and health-system spending. An attempt to reach the Progressive Conservative party during the writ period received no response.
The Ontario New Democratic Party was reached and pointed to a line in its election platform, which reads, “We will continue to propose real reforms that benefit workers that have been rejected by the Ford government including: 10-days paid leave.”
Chris Glover, an Ontario NDP MPP who has been an outspoken advocate for paid sick leave, said, “It’s better for business and it’s better for the health-care system.”
Glover pushed back on the idea that money is saved by not having paid sick days, and said there’s a lack of will in the Ford government to challenge corporate interests, even as evidence shows paid sick leave benefits workers, businesses and the economy. “It’s not only possible, it’s actually better for business.”
The Ontario Liberal Party was also reached, but didn’t comment by the time of publication.