Changes to unfair dismissal protections also ranked highly, with 23% of employers citing the reduction in the qualifying period from two years to six months as a key concern.
Many SME employers believe these changes could encourage more sick days, reducing productivity and increasing business costs.
60% of employees supported the move to pay SSP from the first day of illness, remove the lower earnings limit, and introduce a new earnings-related calculation.
The union body estimates around 4.7 million women will benefit from reforms to statutory sick pay due to take effect on 6th April under the Employment Rights Act.
Women lost 16.6 million days to work-related illness, around 500,000 more than men, according to health and safety experts at Protecting.co.uk.
The Deputy Prime Minister has pledged to make work pay in Scotland through the UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill, which aims to improve workers’ rights and tackle insecure work.
The government is proposing changes to the statutory sick pay that would make all workers eligible for sick pay from the first day of absence.
The system currently provides a lower level of minimum protection to sick workers than most other OECD countries.
Public perceptions hugely overestimate how the current basic rate of universal credit compares to minimum pay.
A report by WPI Economics, commissioned by Unum UK, highlights the economic impact of unhappy employees taking additional sick days, costing the UK economy an estimated £11 billion annually in lost productivity.