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Legislators Step Up Push for Paid Sick Leave



Some 39% of private-sector workers aren't entitled to paid time off when they fall ill, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 11% of state and local government workers lack the benefit. Low-wage and part-time workers, particularly those at small firms or who work in restaurants, are among the least likely to get paid sick time.

Dan and Karen Shackford, shown behind the window at their Great Beginnings day-care center in Plainville, Conn., say the state's paid-sick-leave law has hurt the business. ENLARGE
Dan and Karen Shackford, shown behind the window at their Great Beginnings day-care center in Plainville, Conn., say the state's paid-sick-leave law has hurt the business. Jesse Neider for The Wall Street Journal

To change that, Democratic lawmakers and their allies in Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts, and in cities including New York, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore., are trying to advance measures that would make paid sick time a legal requirement for most firms. In Congress, Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) plans to reintroduce a federal paid-sick-leave bill this spring.

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Such efforts started before this year, but a vicious flu season that sidelined many workers has given them new urgency. Former President Bill Clinton chimed in this month, calling for the first federal paid-sick-leave law. The White House also supports a federal paid-sick-leave law.

Opponents of codifying paid sick leave say such laws weigh on businesses and ultimately hurt workers. In Connecticut, which last year became the first state to mandate paid sick leave, some employers contend the measure has raised costs and harmed workers by prompting cuts in wages or increases. Most firms there with 50 or more workers must provide five paid sick days a year, which employees accrue at a rate of one hour of leave for every 40 worked.

A canvassing of Connecticut businesses from the right-leaning Employment Policies Institute found that, of 156 respondents, more than half had begun complying with the law and most of those said it wasn't good for business. Many said they had offset expected expenses ahead of the law, including by raising prices, cutting workers' hours and limiting their expansion in the state.

"Our fears came true," said Eric Gjede, assistant counsel for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association trade group.

Dan Shackford, owner of Great Beginnings day care in Plainville, Conn., said that before the law, his 50 employees were welcome to call in sick without pay and earn a day off for three months of perfect attendance. Now when someone calls in sick, he has to pay a substitute and the worker. "The law is hurting me," he said.


To cope, he and his wife have lowered the annual raises they selectively give, to 3% from 5%. Mr. Shackford estimates it would cost up to $30,000 annually if his workers used all their sick time. The BLS says that, on average, full-time private-sector workers with a fixed number of days don't use them all.

Proponents contend the benefits outweigh the costs. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat who signed the law, said it has been good for the state as people "aren't going to work and therefore making other people sick." He said he has talked with a variety of employers statewide who "now admit it really wasn't that big of a deal."

"A lot of the early criticism about how this would be abused just hasn't turned out to be the fact," he said, particularly in the restaurant industry where tips drive income.

Cities with such laws include Seattle, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, whose policy was enacted in 2007. Research by the left-leaning Institute for Women's Policy Research found that San Francisco's paid-sick ordinance is rarely misused by workers, supported by most employers now and isn't hurting profits for the vast majority.

Art Swanson, president of the San Francisco Small Business Network, said the law has had a minimal impact and "is a part of doing business." "The burden is tracking it properly, not giving the person the time," he said, echoing Connecticut businesses that complained about complex recordkeeping.

Jim Lazarus, senior vice president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said the vast majority of its 1,500 members were already providing paid sick leave time before the mandate, at an equal or better rate. "In the context of other issues in San Francisco, it has been fairly benign," he said.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics also said the benefits of paid sick leave have been shown to help productivity and reduce the spread of workplace disease, but it wasn't specific about the extent.

It is "not only the right thing to do for families, but good for businesses and the economy," said Sen. Harkin, who is chairman of a Senate labor committee. His Healthy Families Act would let workers accrue up to seven paid sick days a year through hours worked to care for themselves or family, including doctor visits.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the top Republican on the labor committee, contends such a requirement "would only make a bad unemployment problem worse" by increasing hiring costs.

The majority of workers who already have paid sick time receive it from employers that provide it voluntarily, usually through a fixed number of days or, less frequently, as needed.

Karen Barnes, a single mother and part-time director of a Philadelphia day care, wants options like that. She is advocating for a paid-sick bill that would broaden the narrow pool of employers in the city that currently must provide the benefit. Ms. Barnes recently missed two weeks of work, unpaid, after being sent to the hospital with a skin infection. Her employer has told her it can't afford the benefit. "They're going to have to re-evaluate their financial situation," she said.

Write to Melanie Trottman at

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