Allegheny County Council has parroted Pittsburgh City Council and passed an ordinance that mandates private employers of a certain size offer paid sick leave.
It truly is a case of the blind leading the blind.
The measure requires all employers within the county to provide at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 35 hours worked. Earned sick time is capped at 40 hours per year.
As passed, the ordinance applies to those businesses with 26 or more employees. It applies to all employees in the county except independent contractors, state and federal workers, construction union workers who belong to a collective bargaining unit and seasonal employees.
But the mandate is not supported by Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald. It is unenforceable, would not withstand a court challenge and is tone-deaf in these pandemic times, he told KDKA Radio.
The legislation claims its goal is to “improve the public health” by allowing workers who are ill to stay home, thus avoiding the spread of illness through the community.
Never mind the ample scholarly research that shows such policies do little to nothing to curb the phenomenon known as “presenteeism” – going to work sick.
As the Allegheny Institute has noted, repeatedly, the measure is filled with other bureaucratic maladies – from government presuming to know one business of a certain size can or cannot afford to offer paid sick time, to compliance costs and business flight to locales without such a mandate.
And while such a paid sick leave law is a poor public policy prescription in good times, it could be disastrous in these coronavirus pandemic times, institute researchers say.
In the conclusion of an exhaustive study of mandatory paid sick leave laws, Maxford Nelsen, a labor policy analyst with the Freedom Foundation of Olympia, Wash., says if intentions equaled results, mandatory paid sick leave laws should proliferate across the country.
“Unfortunately, crafting productive public policy is more complicated than having the right goals,” Nelsen reminds. “Mandatory paid sick leave policies are no exception.”
While promoters of paid sick leave assure policymakers, business owners and the public that forcing firms to provide mandatory paid leave is not only cost-free, but universally beneficial, Nelsen says the research they frequently rely on says just the opposite.
“The businesses … affected by sick leave mandates … experience moderate negative consequences as they seek to comply,” Nelsen says. “Consumers are hit with higher prices. Employees are likely to see reductions in pay, hours or other benefits. And, despite these measures, some businesses will still face reduced profitability.”
Additionally, Nelsen’s research found that turnover remains unaffected and the alleged savings for employers are illusory.
“Critically, no evidence indicates that paid sick leave regulations noticeably reduce presenteeism,” he says. “If the policy fails to achieve a reduction in the frequency of employees coming to work while sick, then all … the public health justifications offered by labor activists, however persuasive, are invalid.
“A proper understanding of the research on mandatory paid sick leave policies—from both supporters and opponents—provides policymakers with strong reasons to approach such requirements with a healthy dose of caution and skepticism” Nelsen concludes.
Obviously, Pittsburgh City Council and Allegheny County Council did not.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
