Feminist
author Gloria Steinem recently led a group of influential women in an effort to
convince New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn to allow a bill go to
vote that would require businesses in New York to offer paid sick leave for
employees. The effort to require paid sick leave has failed in the past because
opposition argues that employees falsifying sick time to be away from work
would create a negative impact on productivity.
The majority of the burden is expected to fall on small
businesses such as restaurants and clubs that employ a majority of
non-professional employees. Advocates argue that low-income workers have the
most to benefit from such a requirement, because most white-collar workers
already have paid sick leave included in their benefits package. The feminist
group that is pushing for the new bill argues that women are over represented
in low-wage positions, and often also have the responsibility of caring for
sick children as well as themselves.
Several
cities have already enacted laws that require employers’ pay for a specified
amount of sick time off with success. Many businesses opposed the new laws in
San Francisco, Washington D.C., Connecticut, and Seattle. It was realized
shortly that there was not a noticeable negative impact on employers, or productivity.
Employers reported that sick days were rarely misused, and the overall
atmosphere in the workplace had improved.
This topic gets special attention in a large city environment
where exposure to communicable disease can be a problem that reaches epidemic
proportions. Employees that feel pressured to come to work when they are sick
are more likely to share their illness with many others in the workplace.
Employers must accept that a sick worker at work will do more damage to
productivity by infecting others, or making unnecessary mistakes due to lack of
concentration. Businesses that do not let their employees have paid sick leave
have perpetuated this problem to the point that activists have stepped in to
demand government take action.
References
Winter,
Caroline (2012). Is Paid Sick Leave Good for Business? Bloomberg Businessweek,
New York; July 20 2012, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-20/is-paid-sick-leave-good-for-business#r=nav
Drango,
Robert, Ph.D., Lovell, Vicky, Ph.D. (2011). San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave
Ordinance: Outcomes for Employers and Employees. February 2011,
The
Partnership for New York CityData Analysis, interpretation by Ernst &
Young, (2010). A Survey of New York City Employers. September 2010,
Craig,
ReplyDeleteWow! Great article I totally agree with you and the authors of this article. There have been so many times I have spoken to mothers who are sick and cannot afford a day off because they lose pay.I think that most people would rather you stay home if you were sick instead of coming and spreading your germs around. I so often wonder how these working single mom's do it. If your child is sick you can't send them to school or daycare, what choices do you have? I believe the majority of people would not abuse paid sick leave. If anything they would probably use their sick leave more wisely because they know they are going to need it.The only problem is that I don't know how small businesses would be able to afford it.
Craig,
ReplyDeleteI think paid sick time is good but not great in some situations because if they needed a day off to handle personal business they workers will have to resort to "acting sick" or some other excuse. I have recently had a change from sick day to PTO day, and I enjoy it more because I can be honest with my job and I ten to have better scheduling and don't mind work as much because I know I have better option to choose from. Plus that means LONGER VACATIONS!!!
Though in some causes that business are as large or as profitable they should at least afford their employees a few days of sick time.
Paid-sick-leave has expanded across the Nation because the law is already backed by a large enough majority of the council to pass and override a promised veto by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now people say that the bill’s fate is decided by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. But her idea is still opposing the paid-sick-leave policy. Quinn said she supported the goal but it is not the right time when the economy is still slow.
ReplyDeleteCraig,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic. Both side of the argument seem valid, however I think that the misuse of sick days seems like a small setback compared to risking sick employees coming to work and causing others to get sick. I personally feel like paid sick leaves is the right of every employee because being ill is something we cannot control. It is important more so because as stated in the article, white-collar workers already get sick days off and majority of women represent low-wage positions that are often caregivers.
Thank you for the comments everyone. Beenish, you bring up an interesting point in your comment about getting others sick. The swine-flu, and bird-flu pandemics in the recent past might have played a roll in the increased interest in paid time off. I'm all for helping individuals have a better work-life balance, but from a larger perspective; it just makes sense to me that paid time off would be a good investment in damage control to prevent the spread of illness to more employees. I agree with Sara that I think employees would not typically abuse it. Also, jeanette, paid time off does sound much better than "sick leave". Thank you.
ReplyDelete