The Post-Gazette reports that Pittsburgh City Council has approved a major change to its Paid Sick Leave Act.
Under the original proposal (which went into effect in March 2020), for those who work at businesses with more than 15 employees, employers are required to grant one hour of sick leave for every 35 hours worked, capped at 40 hours a year.
Businesses with fewer than 15 employees earned the same hour of leave for every 35 hours worked but were capped at 24 hours annually.
Under the revised law, effective Jan. 1 and per the P-G, “employees will each earn one hour for every 30 hours worked. For the larger businesses, employees will be capped at 72 hours a year and smaller employers are capped at 48 hours.”
Well, isn’t that a nice premium.
But the simple fact of the matter remains that government has absolutely no business mandating what benefits private businesses give their employees.
None whatsoever.
But wait, it gets worse:
“The delayed start [in implementing the revised, more generous sick-leave law] is intended so that city officials can work with small businesses, who may not be able to afford the increased number of hours,” reports the P-G.
“City Council President Dan Lavelle said he wanted to work with these businesses and other city entities like the Urban Redevelopment Authority and other private funders to sponsor small business loans to help pay for the time off.”
Talk about chutzpah, hubris and outrage all rolled into one:
Government improperly forces a private business to offer a benefit many simply cannot afford but then, by extension, offers/forces them into debt to pay for the government overreach.
One P-G reader reasonably ponders if such loans would be “forgivable,” thus transferring the cost of government-mandated private sick-leave benefits onto John and Jane Q. Taxpayer.
Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Allegheny Institute, calls the perked-up mandatory sick-leave policy “unbelievable.”
“It’s a city trying to commit economic suicide,” the Ph.D. economist says. “This will encourage businesses to have fewer full-time employees and, worse, will encourage off-the-books employment.”
Welcome to government at its most ignorant.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitue.org).
