The Spokane City Council voted this week to establish a “work group” on mandatory paid sick leave. The goal of the group will be to eventually lead the city council toward adopting a mandatory paid sick leave policy for the city.
The initial proposal came from Councilman Jon Snyder and union groups, who together said all businesses in the city should be required to offer:
- One hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked
- Sick time that could be used following 90 days of employment
- Sick time that could be used for illness, injury, preventative care, caring for sick relative, and for domestic violence issues
Under Councilmember Snyder’s proposal, the larger the company, the more time off employers will be mandated to provide.
If Spokane adopts the mandatory paid sick leave policy, it would become only the fourth city in the state and 18th in the nation to do so.
Studies consistently show that paid sick leave mandates have increased costs for employers.
In Seattle, a University of Washington report commission by the City of Seattle found employers that responded to the voluntary survey have taken one of the following cost-cutting measures in response to the new paid sick leave mandate:
- 8.2 percent of employers raised prices on consumers.
- 6.4 percent of employers decreased pay raises or bonuses, reducing take home pay for workers.
- 5.3 percent of employers decreased the vacation time they offered, again increasing the burden of the mandate on workers.
- 2.7 percent of employers reduced their number of Seattle employees or moved employees out of the City.
- 0.7 percent closed or relocated their business to another city.
Nearly 20 percent of Seattle employers said their profitability was worse or much worse as a result of the city’s paid sick leave law.
Surveys in San Francisco and Connecticut, which both mandate paid sick leave, reveal similar results. In San Francisco, nearly 30 percent of the lowest-wage employees were laid off or given reduced hours after passage of that city¹s paid sick leave mandate. Other employers cut back employee bonuses, vacation time and part-time help to absorb the new costs. In Connecticut, employers reported that state's paid sick leave law forced them to raise prices, reduce hours, wages and benefits, and sometimes eliminate jobs.
Others said they would likely hire fewer people in the future.
Employers cannot simply absorb increased labor costs from government mandates like paid sick leave. It is absurd and unreasonable to think they can or would. They are forced to shift costs back on to workers, eliminating non-mandated benefits and reducing hours, and to consumers, in the form of increased prices.
For businesses that don't operate with a high profit margin, even a slight increase in business costs can be devastating.
Paid sick leave bills introduced during the 2015 legislative session would have increased the cost on Washington employers by $1.5 billion per year. They died during the regular session.
Interestingly enough, those bills exempted employers whose workers were unionized.