Two newspapers recently published articles related to employee sick leave. Summaries appear below.

• San Jose Mercury News: Fifty-six percent of U.S. employers report having had problems with "presenteeism," when sick employees show up for work instead of taking the day off, according to a recent study by CCH, the Mercury News reports. CCH contacted human resources executives at 300 companies and found a sharp rise in presenteeism problems since 2004, when 39% of companies reported it as a concern. The survey found that 66% of employees who show up for work when sick do so because they feel they have too much work or have to make deadlines. Another common reason for presenteeism is to avoid using vacation days and sick leave (Khanh, San Jose Mercury News, 12/1).
  
  
• Washington Post: A successful San Francisco ballot measure requiring all businesses to provide paid sick leave might be copied by other cities and states in 2007, the Post reports. According to most estimates, nearly half of private-sector workers, including three-quarters of low-income workers, do not have a single day of paid sick leave annually (Joyce, Washington Post, 12/3).