Paid sick leave mandate: Costly to private sector, damaging to economy

Committee won't impose mandate on government employers

(Feb. 6, 2009) The legislature’s Labor Committee is preparing to take up a costly, burdensome proposal requiring many Connecticut employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees — but public-sector employers are being exempted.

Under HB-6187, Connecticut employers of 50 or more hourly and non-exempt workers would have to provide a minimum of one hour paid time off for every 40 hours an employee works. (Beware: Advocates, however, have consistently shown interest in expanding this mandate to even smaller businesses.)

Noticeably absent from the mandate are public-sector employers. Given the number of municipal, school district and part-time state employees that do not have paid sick leave, it's curious that the Office of Fiscal Analysis in past years has found that paid sick leave legislation would have an "unknown," or "nominal" fiscal impact on the state. Possibly the fiscal note is the result of legislators on the committee recognizing that the high costs and administrative burdens contained in this type of legislation would be harmful to municipal and state governments.

Mandating paid sick leave on Connecticut employers already struggling to stay open during the severe recession could have a domino effect — requiring many employers to reduce other employee benefits, or cut jobs, to control costs.

Employers need to have the flexibility to design and negotiate their own benefit and time-off policies that best meet the needs of their employees, business demands and productivity needs.

Currently, no other states have such a mandate. Adopting HB-6187 would immediately make Connecticut a higher cost, less competitive and ultimately less desirable place to do business.

The bottom line is that Connecticut businesses don’t need a one-size-fits-all policy that will make them less competitive. Instead, they need lawmakers to encourage their growth and enhance their ability to create jobs.

CBIA urges the Labor Committee not to consider HB-6187, a bill that would be harmful to Connecticut’s already struggling businesses and economy.
For more information, contact CBIA’s Kia Murrell at 860-244-1931 or kia.murrell@cbia.com.

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