POLICY SHORTFALL: US government is less equipped to handle coronavirus and support citizens than the East Asian countries that have already been hit

• We analyzed sick leave policies in the countries with some of the highest reported rates of coronavirus, and contrasted them with US federal employment policies - and those of some states. Unlike the East and Southeast Asian countries near the center of the outbreak, the US has no federal paid sick leave policy.
• None of these countries have federal paid sick leave protections for small business owners and self-employed workers.
• Experts say paid sick leave can prevent public health disasters such as the coronavirus, since employees won't feel pressured to go into work while sick.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As countries scramble to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, one simple policy could help contain the disease's spread: paid sick leave. And in this regard, the US comes up short on the federal level when compared to the areas in East and Southeast Asia where the outbreak is most severe: China, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines.

Since the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, the disease has spread to 26 countries and infected upwards of 60,000 people.

On the federal level, the US offers no guaranteed paid leave protections to employees who get sick. In fact, the US offers few few federal employment benefits of any kind. The Family and Medical Leave Act requires companies with over 50 employees to allow unpaid leave for illness on the part of employees or their family members. This is somewhat compensated by policies active on the state level, with Michigan becoming the 11th state (along with the District of Columbia) to offer paid sick leave to paid employees in March.

As of February 13, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed 15 total cases of coronavirus in the US.

We looked at the federal policies for the regions hardest hit so far by the coronavirus, and all of China, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines have federal guidelines on providing paid sick leave to employees.

China, where the outbreak originated, offers paid sick leave depending on seniority and time spent working.

China's Labour Law, which took effect in 1995, gave employees the right to rest and recuperate. Under the law - translated by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China - employers cannot terminate an employee's contract on account of illness.

Sick pay varies depending on how long you have been at a company and how senior of a role you have. Employees' compensation ranges from 60% to 100% of their wages, according to the consultancy New Horizons. Paid medical leave for as long as 24 months is allowed for workers who have been at a company for more than 20 years.

To qualify for sick leave, employees must get official approval, i.e., a doctor's note, from a physician who will determine whether they can work or not. The process has been corrupted in some instances, as doctors have admitted to media outlets that they sometimes charge for fake sick notes.

Small business owners, meanwhile, have fewer protections than employees under contract. Many can't comply with the strict health rules China implemented after the coronavirus outbreak, and told Business Insider that they can't easily work from home.

Hong Kong, a special administrative region within China, offers better protections for contract employees who get sick than the mainland does.

According to Hong Kong's Labour Department, part-time and full-time employees can get sick leave if they miss more than four consecutive days and get a note from a registered medical practitioner.

Employees can get two paid sick days for each month they've been employed. After working for a company for over a year, that increases to four paid sick days per month, up to a 120-day maximum. Employees get 80% of their daily wages during sick leave.

Additionally, Hong Kong bars employers from firing a worker on sick leave. Doing so can result in a fine or prosecution.

After China, Japan has the most reported cases of coronavirus. The government provides paid sick leave through its national health insurance program, so employers don't have to pay for it.

Japan has confirmed about 40 cases of coronavirus in the country. Additionally, a cruise ship offshore currently hosts the largest outbreak outside China.

Under Japan's national health insurance program, employees can get two-thirds of their average wage after three consecutive days sick.

With it being provided by a national program, employers in Japan typically don't pay sick leave, according to Thompson Reuters Practical Law.

The Philippines, which reported the first coronavirus death outside of China, has paid sick leave for employees who contribute to Social Security.

According to the Labor Code of the Philippines, enacted in 1974, employees who contribute to social security for at least three months can get 90% of their wages paid during sick leave. The federal government will then reimburse employers using Social Security funds.

Employees using Social Security pay must be unable to work for more than 3 consecutive days, and don't extend beyond 120 days of absence.

In early February, a man in the Philippines became the first person to die of the coronavirus outside China.

Paid sick leave can help stem outbreaks such as coronavirus, according to a health expert.

Sick leave can help prevent public health disasters such as the coronavirus outbreak, according to Marissa Baker, an assistant professor at the University of Washington's Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences department. Baker told Business Insider that coming into work with any illness poses a public health risk for other people in the community.

Without government-protected sick leave, vulnerable employees feel pressured to go into work to pay their bills.

The phenomenon, called "presenteeism," can endanger everyone else in the workplace. Employees vulnerable to this phenomenon include precarious, non-traditional workers, as well as small business owners, who seldom get sick leave, Baker said.

"I can't say coronavirus is being spread faster because of of presenteeism, but it is a consideration," Baker said. "Presenteeism has been shown to cause other workplace epidemics."

Neither the US nor the East and Southeast Asian countries impacted by coronavirus offer federal paid sick leave for small business owners and nontraditional workers.

Neither the US nor any of the Asian countries above extend federal protections for illness to nontraditional workers or small business owners, who told Business Insider they have to choose between going into work or risk losing their jobs. Employers with more resources have been able to step into the gap, allowing employees to work from home or providing screening services at offices.

Taken together, countries in Asia tend to have better sick leave policies than the US, with its patchwork of state laws.

An outbreak in the US on the scale of the coronavirus in China, or another major viral outbreak, would test both the legal framework and the capacity of large employers to provide additional support.