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| With the Democratic Congress, Groups Gear Up for Fight Over Paid Sick Days | |
| 2006-12-05 | |
Supporters point to studies showing that nearly half of American workers do not receive paid sick days. But many Republicans and businesses complain that such legislation would impose another mandate on companies, driving up their costs. Advocates of paid sick leave cite workers like Naomi Nakamura, who lost a week’s pay when her 103-degree fever forced her to miss five days from her job at a video rental store in San Francisco. Ms. Nakamura said, “Some employees didn’t want to lose their pay, so they showed up for work even though they had strep throat, and they just spread it to other people.” Last month, San Francisco voters approved a measure requiring all employers to provide paid sick days, making it the first jurisdiction in the nation with such a requirement. The vote was 61 percent to 39 percent. | |
| Posted by:.com |
| #13 Actually, BrerRabbit, the contrary made the news and generated some controversy up here in Wisconsin. University faculty and staff have paid sick leave, and when they retire they can convert unused sick leave into medical premiums. Quite a lot of profs (and legislators) don't use all their sick leave. (I guess they enjoy their jobs.) The newspapers' spun this as costing the taxpayers extra. |
| Posted by: James 2006-12-05 16:45 |
| #12 Leonardo Prado, a restaurant worker in San Francisco, said not having paid sick days was a financial and emotional strain. Mr. Prado, who is divorced, said that last June when his 4-year-old, Antonio, got sick for two days, he had to hire a baby sitter for $10 an hour, even though he earned $8.82 an hour as a waiter, not counting tips. “It really hurt in the wallet,” Mr. Prado said. “You didn’t have the option to say: ‘I can’t work this day. I have to take care of my son.’ ” I call BS on this one. I'm sure the average waiter makes a TON of money in high-falootin' San Fran. And, if he was ACTUALLY loosing money, I'd bet he'd have called in sick and just taken zero pay. No one in their right mind would work for $8something/hour only to pay out $10/hour to a babysitter with a sick kid at home. We'll except for the parent's of the year, with their 2 month old having a blood alcohol level of .34 something (see linky on page 4). Jim hits it too...lay off people to get just under 15 employees. BrerRabbit's compromise (#5) seems reasonable. Of course, it doesn't feel good, so it won't fly, lol! |
| Posted by: BA 2006-12-05 11:02 |
| #11 I prefer having it all under PTO (paid time off). I don't get sick that much so I can burn it as vacation. Leave it up to the government to force everything on us. You don't like their leave/sick policy lady, go work somewhere else bitch. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-12-05 10:54 |
| #10 Advocates of paid sick leave cite workers like Naomi Nakamura, who lost a weekÂ’s pay when her 103-degree fever forced her to miss five days from her job at a video rental store in San Francisco. 5 days with a 103 degree fever? Wouldn't she be, like, dead? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-12-05 09:17 |
| #9 My Dad worked for the USPS for 42 years and never took a sick day - stubborn old coot. |
| Posted by: Spot 2006-12-05 08:57 |
| #8 I guess I could lay off a couple people to get under the 15 employee minimum - Isn't that going to be a common financial decision for small businesses? Just like no longer hiring students and teens who aren't worth an increased minimum wage. The Dems and especially people like Kennedy, Kerry, etc. do what sounds good, but cannot see the real world results because they have never had a real job, nor had to work productively in their entire lives. |
| Posted by: Jim 2006-12-05 08:44 |
| #7 The Dems want to turn us into France. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2006-12-05 06:50 |
| #6 This is just another attempt to remove all financial risk from the worker and foist it on the employer. And thus continues the march of "progressivism", where a kitty-puppy-fluffy world is promised where there is no such thing as adversity or sacrifice, and evreyone gets to live like kings in olden days, without having to struggle or make tough choices to get there. Creating people who coast instead of push and achieve. In 17 years of owning a business, I've missed exactly four days, two after tearing a joint tendon and two after the surgery to repair it. Did I have miserable times? Sure. But I rose to the occasion. Also agree with comments about using "sick" days as de facto vacation days. I've noticed that in particular people under the age of 40 have a real chip on their shoulder about all time off being for the pursuit of animal pleasure, not for things like going to the doctor or dentist or accountant etc. Fifty years ago there were not many medical or dental clinics or lawyers or accountants were open nights or Saturdays, because people had their priorities straight and used some of their allotted time off from work to do those things during regular business hours. Now the little fauntleroys who grew up in the post 1968 era act as though they're oppressed and life is so-o-o-o unfair if they have to use time off for work for anything but vacations and fun, fun, fun. Another sign of disassociation from what originally made America great, I guess. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-12-05 06:14 |
| #5 If sick leave is paid people will call in sick to the limit of the benefit. This has happend everywhere I've ever worked. I think allowing the employee the option of working extra to make up time lost due to illness would be a reasonable compromise. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2006-12-05 05:26 |
| #4 BTW, all of the 10 years I wuz doing the Single Dad routine I was self-employed. Th kid would go to the Public Cesspool, bring home some choice stuff and give it to me over dinner, then laugh it off. Meanwhile I was floored, lol. She never caught squat, heh - Little Miss Perfect Attendance. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-05 02:24 |
| #3 Self-employed for 18 of the last 25 years, I smirk in your general direction, Frank. ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2006-12-05 01:39 |
| #2 Using the power of the federal government to issue mandates are just a form of tax increase. Republicans should engineer a much much larger acorss the board tax cut to counter this. The left loves to use the term "revenue neutral" Let them demonstrate revenue neutrality. |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-12-05 00:39 |
| #1 My employer stopped offering sick leave, but increased personal/vacation days. Result is so-so: less vacation time used for "sick" days, but more people coming in to the office with colds, fevers, to avoid using up their personal/vacation time |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-12-05 00:33 |