As an emboldened progressive movement is demanding big improvements in worker compensation and benefits across the country, major employers are voicing frustration at the different sick leave laws they have to contend with.
The Wall Street Journal reports that 36 states, counties and municipalities have implemented mandatory sick leave laws over the past decade.
All employers in California, for instance, are required to give their employees three paid sick days a year. But if they’re in Los Angeles, the number jumps to six. In San Francisco, companies are required to provide workers nine paid sick days. Even the comparably conservative San Diego mandates five days off to nurse an illness or care for a loved one.
As a result of the patchwork of sick leave requirements across the country, some employers have opted to extend the most generous policy to all of their employees, regardless of location. That serves two distinct goals: Ensuring legal compliance and preventing resentment from employees in areas with less strict laws.
The push for sick leave has accompanied the push for higher wages that has gained steam over the past three years. Labor groups and other left-leaning political groups have exerted pressure on local governments to hike the minimum wage and require employers to provide basic benefits to low-wage workers, including those employed in the ever-expanding service sector.
The frustrations that employers are voicing about the regulatory patchwork might lead businesses to eventually join labor groups in supporting national legislation on sick leave.
It is unlikely that a national law would forbid locales from imposing more generous policies, but as is the case with the national minimum wage, it is very likely that many municipalities — particularly in conservative areas — would simply adopt the standard set by Congress.
The pressure on low-wage employers to provide what are considered basic benefits to their employees corresponds with a trend among companies to offer even more generous parental and family leave to middle-income or high-income workers.
It is not only concern for the welfare of workers that is driving the push for more sick leave. The health and safety of customers at restaurants, for instance, is at risk because of the high percentage of low-wage employees who go to work sick because they can’t afford to take an unpaid day off.
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