The proposal to make paid sick days a basic workplace standard in New York City has split the city’s business community. Many small business owners, like Freddy Castiblanco, owner of the Terraza 7 Train Cafe in Elmhurst, Queens, think the move is a commonsense way to protect public health and help out their employees. Castiblanco told the New York Times’ Jim Dwyer:
“You get more committed people if you stick with them when they have their crisis… I’m at a disadvantage with other small-business owners who are not responsible. If we had a law, it would be equal.”
Small business groups, like the USA Latin Chamber of Commerce and the Korean Small Business Service Center, have also endorsed the pending paid sick days legislation in the City Council.
Others business groups have expressed worries about the proposal’s added costs. But those concerns could be allayed by a new report released yesterday by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, which says that the nation’s first citywide universal paid sick days law has had little effect on employers.
Despite some problems enforcing the measure, the report finds that (bold theirs):
Overall, the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) reports implementation of the law has been relatively smooth, with generally positive feedback from the business community.
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The business community reports that implementation has been relatively smooth with employers experiencing only minor impacts on their bottom line. An analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy and Research concluded that job growth in San Francisco was unaffected in 2008; one year after implementation. Both the Chamber of Commerce and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association reported receiving very few employer complaints or concerns regarding the ordinance and overall, implementation has been fine.
Previous to the law, nearly 1 in 4 San Francisco workers lacked paid sick days (estimates by the Community Service Society say more than a million New Yorkers go without paid sick time here). Now, employees at medium and large businesses have the right to earn up to 9 paid sick days a year and employees at small businesses can earn up to 5, similar to proposed legislation in the New York City Council.
Elsewhere on the paid sick days front, the Massachusetts labor movement announced yesterday a campaign to push for a first-in-the-nation statewide paid sick days bill. A dozen other states are also considering universal paid sick days laws, including Connecticut, where the WFP and allies worked to pass a paid sick days bill in the State House last Spring.
Update: Crain’s Insider noted the report today:
Sick-Leave Report Touted
Supporters of a bill requiring businesses to offer paid sick days are pointing to a report citing “generally positive feedback” from San Francisco’s business community to that city’s sick-day mandate, the nation’s first. The Office of the Legislative Analyst there notes that job growth was unaffected during the first year, and employers experienced “only minor impacts on their bottom line.” San Francisco’s chamber of commerce and restaurant association reported few employer complaints. New York’s five chambers oppose the local bill.
