Cash benefits for short-term sickness, 1979.

Every year many workers become sick or suffer accidents away from their jobs and so cannot work for temporary periods ranging from a few days to several months. Although there is no Federal social insurance program to protect against this risk, the majority of workers are nevertheless protected through State programs, industry programs, or private sector programs. Five States (California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island), Puerto Rico, and the railroad industry have Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) laws requiring employers to cover their workers under a plan that pays a benefit replacing about half the worker’s wage. Many other workers are able to obtain protection through plans offered by their employers. Employers offer their employees sick-leave plans or sickness insurance as a fringe benefit or as part of a labor-management collective bargaining agreement. In 1979, about 56 million American workers were covered under TDI or voluntary plans that provided cash benefits to replace earnings when they were sick. Workers so covered comprised more than three-fifths of all workers. They received a total of $13.4 billion in benefits. Total estimated earnings loss in 1979 from sickness was $36.0 billion. Total sickness benefits paid as a percent of income loss in 1979 was 37 percent. This rate represented a slight rise over the 36 percent reported for 1978. The income loss estimate encompasses short-term disability of the institutionalized population and their first 6 months of long-term disability. In this note, the definition of income lost due to nonwork-connected disability is limited to losses in the selfemployment and wage and salary earnings during the first 6 months of disability. To help estimate income lost through sickness, the Social Security Administration has developed a sickness index which is compiled each year. The index is applied to the annual average number of work-loss days used in estimating the value of income loss. This index is based