The D.C. Council is expected to vote Tuesday on abill to make D.C. the second city in the nation —San Francisco was the first — to force all businesses to provide paid sick days to their employees.
Although the issue is a political winner, it’s bad public policy even though nobody wants to force sick people to go to work. Like so many other well-intentioned, do-good initiatives, this one will wind up hurting the very people it intends to help.
In D.C., most large companies already offer paid sick leave to attract and retain good employees. It’s a great benefit. There’s no doubt that people are happier when they know they’ll be excused from work if they catch the flu or have to stay home with a sick family member.
The problem is that small businesses already operating on the razor’s edge of profitability sometimes can’t afford it. Yet the current Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act, sponsored by council member Carol Schwartz, R-at large, would force them to offer it without any consideration of their bottom line.
D.C. Chamber of Commerce President Barbara Lang correctly points out that the District cannot afford to drive small and minority-owned businesses out of the city. But mandating another overhead expense, when the cost of running a business in D.C. is already 30 to 50 percent higher than in Virginia and Maryland, will do just that.
Small businesses that don’t pack up and leave may resort to such self-protective strategies as cutting back on wages, hours and other benefits or turning to temporary help. By allowing employees to take paid days off without prior notice or consent, the bill will also be an incentive to absenteeism. Since holding down a permanent, full-time job is the first step up the ladder of economic success, this bill will have the unintended consequence of chopping off the bottom rung for many people.
Businesses offer whatever benefits they think will attract the most productive workers at the lowest cost, which prospective employees are free to accept or reject. Employers should be encouraged to offer paid sick leave, perhaps with a generous tax credit to cover the additional expense. But it shouldn’t be against the law if they can’t.
