Jul 3, 2026
When New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr. walked back onto the House floor last week after a 116-day absence, he admitted what his office had declined to disclose for months: he had been hospitalized and treated for depression, ABC News reports.
“[Depression] is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand it,” Kean said on the House floor. He said he was “grateful that I accepted help because today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love.”
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According to ABC, the republican congressman missed more than 100 House votes during his absence but continued collecting his congressional salary — $174,000 a year, unchanged since 2009 according to the Congressional Research Service.
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This matters because, as Mother Jones reported, Kean has regularly voted against paid sick leave protections for his constituents over his 20 years in the New Jersey Senate. That includes a vote against New Jersey’s landmark Earned Sick Leave Act, which mandates five paid sick days per year for most New Jersey workers, as well as votes against two of the state’s paid family leave laws.
“He’s been able to rely on things he directly voted against,” Yarrow Willman-Cole from the nonprofit New Jersey Citizen Action, who organized in 2018 for the Earned Sick Leave Act, told Mother Jones.
Moneywise reached out to Kean’s office for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Could you get the same deal from your employer?
The irony has a broader financial dimension for ordinary workers. While Kean received full pay during his extended medical absence, most Americans face a starkly different reality when illness keeps them from work.
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), 80% of private sector workers had access to paid sick leave as of March 2025, but that access is far from consistent. Workers in service occupations had access at a rate of just 65%, while 93% of workers in management and professional roles — far closer to a congressman’s circumstances — did.
The gaps widen further by income. The same CRS report found that only 58% of workers in the bottom quarter of wages had access to paid sick leave, compared to 94% of those in the top quarter. Just 56% of part-time workers had access.
And even when paid sick leave does exist, how much workers can take is tightly constrained. The CRS report found that among workers at their jobs for at least one year, the median number of sick leave days they could earn in a given year was six — a far cry from the 116 days Kean was away.
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A patchwork of protections
Access to paid sick leave in the U.S. depends heavily on where you work and live. While there’s no federal law requiring that private sector employers provide it, the CRS report notes that 18 states now mandate paid sick leave, with another three states (Illinois, Maine and Nevada) requiring broader earned paid leave that can be used for any purpose.
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New Jersey is among those 18. Its Earned Sick Leave Act — the one Kean voted against — entitles most workers to accrue up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year.
Research on paid sick leave mandates has consistently found health benefits. The CRS report cites peer-reviewed studies associating mandated leave with increased use of preventive health services, improved health status and reduced spread of contagious illness — with stronger effects among workers who had the least access before mandates took effect.
Matthew Camarda, advocacy and public policy director of NAMI New Jersey, framed the issue in the Mother Jones report: “All individuals with mental health conditions deserve that opportunity to get care and to recover on their own terms.”
He added that barriers to leave — including Medicaid work requirements Kean voted to support — “make it very challenging for millions of Americans in this country who do have mental health conditions like depression to get the care that they need without risking their employment.”
For Kean, a four-month medical leave ended with a public statement and a return to his seat. For the many private sector workers still without any paid sick leave, there’s no equivalent safety net, and, so far, no federal law is requiring one.
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
