Legislation being debated in the House and Senate that would require employers to provide paid sick leave would be a massive unfunded mandate on employers that could easily cost small and large businesses tens of billions of dollars.
Labor market competition has already resulted in employers establishing a wide array of paid leave plans, insurance programs, paid time off policies, sick leave banks and other human resource options. The question is, should the federal government mandate one costly, inflexible approach to employee benefits, an approach that will be an administrative and logistical nightmare for many employers, at the expense of all the other good things that employers are already doing? And I think the answer to that question is a resounding “No.
I am very disappointed that we did not spend today’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s hearing titled “The Healthy Families Act: Safeguarding Americans’ Livelihood, Families and Health with Paid Sick Days,