February 11, 2008
Strong medicine | A proposed bill would force companies to offer paid time off to sick employees
By Sara Donnelly
A paid sick leave bill riling Maine's business owners will likely face a heated debate as it moves through the House and Senate this session after a divided "Ought to Pass" endorsement from the Labor Committee.
More than a dozen Maine businesses and trade associations have testified in opposition to the bill, which mandates up to five paid sick days for companies employing 25 or more people. Opponents say forcing Maine businesses to add days off would cost some companies upwards of $100,000 a year. But the bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Jackie Norton (D-Bangor), says LD 1454, "An Act to Care for Working Families," only targets businesses that don't offer any paid days off ˆ vacation, personal or sick. That's a part of the business community opponents and proponents of the bill agree is relatively small. According to language added to the bill late last session, "an employer with a leave policy providing paid leave options is not required to modify such a policy," meaning those companies that already offer any kind of paid days off may count those toward the minimum five required in the legislation.
"A lot of people who are complaining, when given a chance to have the bill explained to them, in many cases the issue goes away," Norton says.
But though the bill won't require most businesses to up the number of leave days they already offer full timers, it will force the some 80% of Maine companies with 25 or more workers that don't give part-timers sick days to find a way to do so. Beyond this squeeze, many business leaders are concerned the paid sick leave bill is just another example of government red tape in a state they say is already notorious for its tough-on-biz policies.
"If proponents of this legislation think it's so important, the reality is there is going to be something else that suffers if this becomes law," says Peter Gore, senior governmental affairs specialist for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. Gore says businesses will have to cut other benefits like health insurance or vacation time, and some may go under altogether if this bill passes.
After Maine in 2002 became the first state in the nation to require employers allow workers to use sick days for ill family members, many in the business community are fuming over what they perceive as a bolder attempt to restrict the free market. When the bill was first presented to the Legislature's Labor Committee in April, about a dozen businesses and trade associations testified that Maine is in no position to be the first in the nation when it comes to paid sick leave. Opponents included the Maine Merchants Association and the Maine chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, and two of the state's largest employers, Hannaford Supermarkets and Central Maine Power Co. But other business owners, including the 11 who signed a November letter to the Labor Committee in favor of the legislation, say providing paid sick leave will level the playing field so businesses offering the benefit won't have to struggle to compete with those that don't.
Honoring the "social contract"
If Maine does require businesses to provide paid sick leave, it would be a significant success for local labor activists. Proponents of the bill point out that the United States is the only industrialized nation not to require businesses to provide paid days off for people feeling under the weather. Only San Francisco, that bohemian enclave, has mandated paid sick days thus far, but at least seven other states from Montana to Florida are expected to consider bills like Maine's this year. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) has proposed federal legislation to mandate paid sick time.
Like San Francisco, the Maine bill would require businesses to provide employees with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The Maine bill mandates no more than five paid sick days annually. According to the Maine Department of Labor, there are 3,519 private employers in Maine with 25 or more employees. They account for a scant 7.7% of employers but about 62% of jobs in the state. In a 2005 benefits study, the DOL found that nearly 88% of businesses with 25 or more employees surveyed provide sick days to full-time employees, and around 32% provide sick days to part-timers. According to a 2006 Maine Women's Lobby analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data, 46% of all Maine employees ˆ around 264,000 workers ˆ do not have any paid sick days.
Laura Harper, director of public policy for the Maine Women's Lobby, which authored the bill, says the legislation was created in part to help women workers who rely on several part-time jobs to survive and may not be in a part of the state where finding employment with better benefits is an option.
The Maine Women's Lobby contends that paid sick days make for a healthy bottom line: According to medical journal Statistics in Medicine, a worker with the flu is likely to infect 1.8 of every 10 co-workers. Those flu-ridden employees miss an average of two days of work and work a half day at half their productivity level when they return to work, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
Andy Graham, owner of Portland Color, was one of 11 business owners to declare their support of the bill last November. Graham, who currently employs 23 people at his Portland printing and processing firm but frequently hires above the bill's 25 employee threshold, offers his staff five paid personal or sick days and a minimum two weeks of paid vacation annually. Graham supports its passage because he believes society has a responsibility to ensure workers get paid sick leave.
"I think it's a basic part of the social contract that people have a living wage, that they have medical benefits and that they have sick days and vacation days," says Graham. "And I think that as an employer those are costs you assume when you choose to start a business."
More than a dozen Maine businesses and trade associations have testified in opposition to the bill, which mandates up to five paid sick days for companies employing 25 or more people. Opponents say forcing Maine businesses to add days off would cost some companies upwards of $100,000 a year. But the bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Jackie Norton (D-Bangor), says LD 1454, "An Act to Care for Working Families," only targets businesses that don't offer any paid days off ˆ vacation, personal or sick. That's a part of the business community opponents and proponents of the bill agree is relatively small. According to language added to the bill late last session, "an employer with a leave policy providing paid leave options is not required to modify such a policy," meaning those companies that already offer any kind of paid days off may count those toward the minimum five required in the legislation.
"A lot of people who are complaining, when given a chance to have the bill explained to them, in many cases the issue goes away," Norton says.
But though the bill won't require most businesses to up the number of leave days they already offer full timers, it will force the some 80% of Maine companies with 25 or more workers that don't give part-timers sick days to find a way to do so. Beyond this squeeze, many business leaders are concerned the paid sick leave bill is just another example of government red tape in a state they say is already notorious for its tough-on-biz policies.
"If proponents of this legislation think it's so important, the reality is there is going to be something else that suffers if this becomes law," says Peter Gore, senior governmental affairs specialist for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. Gore says businesses will have to cut other benefits like health insurance or vacation time, and some may go under altogether if this bill passes.
After Maine in 2002 became the first state in the nation to require employers allow workers to use sick days for ill family members, many in the business community are fuming over what they perceive as a bolder attempt to restrict the free market. When the bill was first presented to the Legislature's Labor Committee in April, about a dozen businesses and trade associations testified that Maine is in no position to be the first in the nation when it comes to paid sick leave. Opponents included the Maine Merchants Association and the Maine chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, and two of the state's largest employers, Hannaford Supermarkets and Central Maine Power Co. But other business owners, including the 11 who signed a November letter to the Labor Committee in favor of the legislation, say providing paid sick leave will level the playing field so businesses offering the benefit won't have to struggle to compete with those that don't.
Honoring the "social contract"
If Maine does require businesses to provide paid sick leave, it would be a significant success for local labor activists. Proponents of the bill point out that the United States is the only industrialized nation not to require businesses to provide paid days off for people feeling under the weather. Only San Francisco, that bohemian enclave, has mandated paid sick days thus far, but at least seven other states from Montana to Florida are expected to consider bills like Maine's this year. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) has proposed federal legislation to mandate paid sick time.
Like San Francisco, the Maine bill would require businesses to provide employees with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The Maine bill mandates no more than five paid sick days annually. According to the Maine Department of Labor, there are 3,519 private employers in Maine with 25 or more employees. They account for a scant 7.7% of employers but about 62% of jobs in the state. In a 2005 benefits study, the DOL found that nearly 88% of businesses with 25 or more employees surveyed provide sick days to full-time employees, and around 32% provide sick days to part-timers. According to a 2006 Maine Women's Lobby analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data, 46% of all Maine employees ˆ around 264,000 workers ˆ do not have any paid sick days.
Laura Harper, director of public policy for the Maine Women's Lobby, which authored the bill, says the legislation was created in part to help women workers who rely on several part-time jobs to survive and may not be in a part of the state where finding employment with better benefits is an option.
The Maine Women's Lobby contends that paid sick days make for a healthy bottom line: According to medical journal Statistics in Medicine, a worker with the flu is likely to infect 1.8 of every 10 co-workers. Those flu-ridden employees miss an average of two days of work and work a half day at half their productivity level when they return to work, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
Andy Graham, owner of Portland Color, was one of 11 business owners to declare their support of the bill last November. Graham, who currently employs 23 people at his Portland printing and processing firm but frequently hires above the bill's 25 employee threshold, offers his staff five paid personal or sick days and a minimum two weeks of paid vacation annually. Graham supports its passage because he believes society has a responsibility to ensure workers get paid sick leave.
"I think it's a basic part of the social contract that people have a living wage, that they have medical benefits and that they have sick days and vacation days," says Graham. "And I think that as an employer those are costs you assume when you choose to start a business."
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