Back in 1993, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Many of its opponents claimed that paid leave would be the next step. It took 22 years, but they were correct. Of course, most developed nations already require this, and many US companies offer it voluntarily. However, this is the first time there will be a serious effort to mandate it nationally. Seems like this could be tough on small and medium sized businesses.
Yep, if a small business has five employees and one goes out for an extended absence for whatever reason, they'd have to continue to pay that employee and make up for the loss of 20% of the work force some how. But, Obama and the Left doesn't give a shiite about small business.
I really see both sides of this issue. There is a lot of research that supports paid leave which is why many businesses are doing it on their own. It is certainly not feasible for every business. My wife works for a three person company that could not function without one member for an extended period of time. I would suggest incentives to encourage the practice without making it mandatory. I see it like healthy eating and exercise. It is something that we should be pushing as a society but not necessarily with government.
I had hoped people would see the rolleyes. Here I will clarify: But, Obama and the Left doesn't give a shiite about small business. Right and Republicans could care less about wage earners who are sick or disabled.
I do not know if it is 50 or 15 employees, but most labor laws of this type do not apply to small businesses.
Santa Claus strikes again. The dems/libs will continue to give freebees out until there is no U.S. They'll do anything to get the freeloaders and nutjobs to vote for them.
n64 "Is seven days "an extended absence"? Or what did I miss? You missed the next sentences in the article.
I'm curious who on this thread has ever gone without some sort of paid sick leave? I know I haven't since I jumped into the workforce after college into white collar jobs. Has anyone here raised a family with a job that doesn't offer paid sick leave? I'm not talking about owning your own business either. I'm talking about working for "the man" without sick leave privileges.
Husker Right. I thinkmost companies of any size offer paid sick leave. I also think you typically had to be employed for a certain of time to get it How many days on average did you get? Part of the issue here I think is he doesn't make it clear, as least so far who he thinks should get it. And it would burden many small businesses . I think the more onerous issue is extended paid leave. BO is asking for extended paid leave of 6 weeks. That could shut down some small biz
I would like to see a graduated version of this. Something like what most employers do for earning vacation. 1 week = after first year with us. 2 weeks = second year, 4 weeks= third year, etc. You certainly don't want to make something like this available on day one of employment and it should be some percentage of actual regular pay. Maybe 50% after year 1 and adding 10% each year after that. And like most legislation of this type, it should exempt the small employers (under 50 employees).
