Last week, I watched President Obama deliver the State Of The Union address. I’m not a hugely political person, so I will keep politics out of this, but one of the topics that stood out during his speech was about expanding sick paid leave for workers, starting with federal employees. What does this mean?
The President is calling for Congress to pass a law that would allow millions of working Americans to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave per year. Right now, employees can take three months of unpaid time off, to provide care for an aging family member or maternity leave.
The concept isn’t new. Last year, the state of Massachusetts followed Connecticut and California in guaranteeing paid sick days for employees. The measure had to be approved by voters and was, with nearly 60% support for the sick leave ballot initiative.
But as a small business owner and a taxpayer what would this mean for you? In order to fund the plan, the president is proposing $2 billion dollars in new funds to encourage states to develop paid family and medical leave programs. Would that trickle down to taxpayers and up to private employers? Will it affect a company’s bottom line? Some business owners in California, where the law has been around for ten years, report that it hasn’t, but really only time will tell.
Published research shows companies in other countries that have adopted similar policies have happier employees, who are more productive.
As the owner of Brigade Bookkeeping, a parent of an elementary aged child, and the daughter of aging parents, I understand. How do you keep your employees happy and take care of your family at the same time? Politics aside, could paid sick leave be the solution or a bad idea for a small to medium sized business owner? Tell me what you think by clicking here to email me. Let’s start a discussion.
