A group in Orange county, Florida is circulating a petition to be added to the ballot that would pass a county ordinance to require that all businesses in the county give employees paid sick days. They are seeking one hour of sick time for every thirty seven hours worked. The law supported by the petition would also prohibit employers from disciplining employees for calling in sick. This will increase labor costs by 3%, as well as make it more likely that employers would have staffing woes, further increasing costs to employers.
This stupid law will probably pass, because the idiots voting for this will not understand that employers will have only three ways to deal with this added expense (essentially, a tax):
1 Cut costs. This will happen through lower wages or lay offs.
2 Increase revenue. They will raise prices. This means that many of the businesses that currently do not offer sick time, like convenience stores and fast food places, will charge more. Hello, local inflation.
3 Simply close Orange County locations, and move out of the county.
This is the basic flaw of Democracy: Everyone thinks that they can live at the expense of everyone else by simply voting for it.
Duh, I'm really stupid about this sort of stuff....at my place of employment we are "allowed" 6 sick days in a rolling year. If I use those days; I have to use my vacation days (ETO) to finance those lost days. The company doesn't "pay" me for sick days; I have to use up my banked time.
ReplyDeleteIs this what they are proposing?
Or are they proposing that the company pay you for your time; whether you are at work or not?
Steve
The unemployment rate in Orange County is 10.3, significantly worse than that of the rest of the company. So the people of Orange County want to make it tougher on employers. Pretty bright!
ReplyDelete@ Steve: Your 'banked time': are you being paid when you are not at work? If so, that is paid time off for sick time.
ReplyDelete