Sometimes media reports about the campaign for paid sick days portray an intractable fight with business. But is that really the truth? That businesses will fail or leave the state if they have to offer a basic minimum number of paid sick days?
Of course not – in fact many of the best and most profitable businesses in America offer much more generous paid leave policies than the minimum standard created by our bill. And a significant body of research shows businesses actually save money by providing paid sick days.
While the reasons to support paid sick days are clear (paid sick days protect public health, support family economic security, and even reduce healthcare costs) the reason to oppose such common-sense legislation amounts to little more than scare tactics.
As a matter of fact, while the state’s business lobbyists are dead-set against paid sick days, at last week’s public hearing in the Labor Committee on the paid sick days bill, a substantial number of business owners and management professionals spoke in support of paid sick days legislation.
Let’s take a look at some of it:
From Louis Lista, owner of West Hartford’s Pond House Restaurant:
If I were to look back on the past six years I think our initial assumption that providing these benefits would be too costly, wasn’t quite right. I didn’t realize then how much turnover was a drag on our cost structure and how costs could be reduced by providing decent benefits for employees.
Particularly in these difficult economic times, we’ve found that having a stable workforce with a good working knowledge of how our business operates has been beneficial in keeping us profitable and growing…. My experienced and dedicated workforce is due, in no small part, to the fact that I show respect to my employees by providing paid sick days. That has helped my business navigate the waters of this recession.
From Jonathan Kantrowitz, owner and Queue Inc, a small publishing company in Shelton:
First, providing sick days helps us attract and keep the best employees, and engenders in them a sense of loyalty and respect for the company, since they feel the company cares about them.
Second, providing paid sick days obviously discourages employees from coming to work sick. This has many benefits for our business. It reduces the likelihood that a sick employee will infect other employees, and it helps a sick employee recover more quickly so they can return to work. I also believe that sick employees are more likely to have accidents and some of our equipment has the potential to cause serious injury.
Finally, sick employees are more likely to make mistakes, and in our business mistakes are extremely costly. Editorial, printing, and production mistakes hurt the reputation of our business and have caused us to reprint hundreds, and sometimes thousands of books. Even simple shipping and billing mistakes cause problems for our reputation and other internal issues.
From Katherine Emery, CEO of Farmington’s Walker Systems Support:
Most businesses offer paid time off and understand that it’s the humane thing to do, but unless you establish a floor, there will be unsavory companies that take advantage of the most vulnerable among us and deprive them of this basic accommodation. And when you allow companies to make the choice, then there tends to be a race to the bottom: Businesses that might wish to do the right thing feel pinched if they’re forced to compete against the less scrupulous companies that don’t provide this basic benefit. Especially after last fall’s outbreak of H1N1, it should be common sense to guarantee workers a minimum number of days to protect working people, the public health, and also our businesses.
From Tashienna Smith, owner of a Waterbury cleaning company:
I decided to be the kind of employer that takes care of their employees. I provide health care and paid sick days to my employees. Health care costs are a burden, but paid sick days are easy to afford. Giving employees paid sick time is worthwhile because employees are more productive, recover from illness faster, and do not put my customers at risk. All responsible businesses should provide paid sick days. It isn’t a real cost, and employees need it.
And from more management and business experts:
From Scott MacDonald, an HR consultant from Middletown:
I always urge employees to provide adequate paid leave (vacation, sick, and perhaps personal). The reason is simple: through my work with a multitude of employers in a variety of industries, my experience and extensive research has led to the unmistakable conclusion that progressive leave policies, including sick leave, actually have a positive effect on productivity, employee morale, employee satisfaction and engagement, and bottom-line success (i.e., profitability).
From Mike Winterfield, a retired actuary:
Needless to say, no employer will be pushed to the brink of ruin with costs of this nature.
Businessmen routinely raise prices to cover minor cost increases. For example, a $20 dinner price at a nice restaurant could be increased to just $20.06 – $20.10 to accommodate a 0.3 – 0.5% cost increase.
From Mike Brown, President of New Standard Institute, a training and consulting firm:
We have learned a few things about the workforce:
- Sick people at work make other people sick. This can cause illness to spread into a tsunami of absenteeism. It can take any company to a grinding halt within only two days.
- Sick people are low productivity employees. The lethargy that goes with small infections and colds, combined with a lack of focus, means that a parson’s high productivity is inevitably compromised when ill.
Sick people can have accidents. A person with minor symptoms like a fever or blurred vision can easily have an accident in the workplace. I know there is a discussion about food service people working while ill, but they are also at increased risk of cutting themselves or falling while on the job. We work with manufacturing facilities and this can become like threatening when working with heavy equipment.