This isn't about McConnell's health, however. It's about everyone else's.
McConnell is receiving something tens of millions of American workers don't: the ability to focus on getting well without worrying about losing his job or his paycheck. That's exactly how it should be. When you're sick or injured, your job is to recover, not to decide whether you can afford to.
Yet the U.S. remains the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee paid sick leave at the national level.
That's not because the issue has never come before Congress. It has. Repeatedly. McConnell himself has voted against paid sick leave many times. The irony is difficult to ignore.
The internet is busy speculating about McConnell's condition. That's beside the point. His doctors say he isn't medically cleared to return to work, and no one argues he should ignore that advice. We understand that recovering from a serious injury can take weeks or longer. We don't expect him to "tough it out." We don't accuse him of lacking commitment.
Why shouldn't the same grace extend to the office employee recovering from surgery? Or the restaurant server battling pneumonia? Or the manufacturing worker trying to avoid spreading the flu across an entire production line?
Too often, workers without paid leave face an impossible choice: go to work sick or lose income they can't afford to lose. That's bad for employees, bad for employers, and bad for public health.
As an employment lawyer, I advise employers on compliance. Paid sick leave, however, is one of those issues where the law lags behind good policy. Employers that offer paid leave benefit from healthier workplaces, lower turnover, better morale, and fewer sick employees coming to work. It's one of those rare workplace policies that advances both employee well-being and sound business interests.
Reasonable people can debate how a national paid leave law should be structured. They can debate accrual rates, employer size exemptions, and who should bear the cost.
But we shouldn't still be debating whether workers deserve the opportunity to recover from illness or injury without risking their livelihoods.
If weeks of medically necessary leave is appropriate for a politician, it ought to be appropriate for the people who stock our grocery shelves, brew our beer, teach our children, care for our parents, and keep our businesses running every day.
Recovery shouldn't be a privilege reserved for senators. It should be a right every American worker can count on.
Congress, it's long past time to make paid sick leave the law of the land.