Mandatory sick pay is dead for now, but expect it to come back in 2009.
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BENEFITS UPDATE
Sick Pay To Remain A Benefit,
Not Entitlement---For Now
By Christopher W. Olmsted
Is sick pay an employee entitlement or a benefit? In California, AB 2716, a bill seeking to make sick pay an entitlement that all employers must provide has died in the Senate. But it will be back.
For details on the provisions of AB 2716, see our May 2008 summary here.
The bill died in the Senate because of budget constraints. The state would have had to pay certain employees for the sick leave—something it cannot currently afford to do.
The cost to private employers would be much more. Although many employers offer sick pay as a benefit, most employers bristle at the thought of a state mandate requiring such pay.
Supporters of the bill came up with all manner of public policy arguments. The pro-labor group Labor Project for Working Families argued in a fact sheet that employers should support the sick pay mandate because it would decrease employee turnover, increase productivity, and improve public health.
The public health argument appears to strike a chord with voters. The argument is that sick workers make more people sick. Korye Capozza, of the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education hypothesized in a policy brief that mandatory sick pay would improve decrease food poisoning and save the elderly. “AB 2716 would have clear benefits for individual workers but, importantly, it would also have public health benefits that extend beyond the household and workplace” wrote Capozza. “Specifically, such a policy could reduce the transmission of foodborne illness, decrease disease outbreaks in nursing homes, reduce the spread of infections in childcare settings and mitigate the transmission of seasonal influenza. There is also some evidence that paid sick leave influences workers’ decisions to see a doctor, parents’ decisions to stay home and care for a sick child and patients’ decisions about treatment choices. Finally, AB 2716 has the potential to improve patient compliance with preventive health-care guidelines and chronic care management, and thus to reduce health-care spending over the long term.”
Mandatory sick pay will be back. Assemblywoman Ma has vowed to reintroduce the bill next year. It is likely to gain public support. The California Center for Research on Women and Families, a program of the nonprofit Public Health Institute, publicized a public poll finding 73% of voters would support a law to guarantee that workers receive a minimum number of paid sick days from their employer.
The text to the most recent version of the bill can be found here.
More Legal Update articles.
Download entire September Legal Update in PDF format.
This article is intended as a brief overview of the law and are not intended to substitute as legal advice. Any questions or concerns regarding any statute or case law should be addressed to a licensed attorney. Copyright © 2008 by Barker Olmsted & Barnier, APLC. San Diego, California. All rights reserved.
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