Our Human Resources Blog

In the past few years, Congress has introduced a slew of labor and employment related bills including “The Healthy Families Act”.

This proposed federal legislation would allow workers in businesses with 15 or more employees to earn up to seven paid sick days each year. These sick days could be used to recover from illness, access preventive care or provide care for a sick family member. Workers would earn a minimum of one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.  To date, legislation at the national level hasn’t received much support.

Many lawmakers across the US are now introducing versions of this bill at the state and local levels. In 2010, there were 26 states and cities that either had bills introduced, had active campaigns or both.

Advocates of mandatory paid sick leave believe it builds loyalty among employees, while eliminating the stress of missing a day’s pay when you are sick.  They believe people shouldn’t be forced to risk their jobs to take care of themselves or their families. They also believe that employees that come to work sick are unnecessarily exposing coworkers and customers to their germs.

With an already struggling economy and high unemployment rates, opponents of this legislation believe it would impose costs for employers that could be significant- impeding businesses recovery and future job creation. They also believe it could limit an employer’s flexibility in designing a benefits package that would meet the needs of their workforce.

For good or bad- the momentum is expected to continue in 2011.