Earlier this month, the Senate Appropriations Committee defeated Assembly Bill 2716, deciding against imposing yet another costly, unnecessary mandate on California small businesses – for now. AB 2716 would have mandated that employers provide workers with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of paid work. In smaller businesses, employees would have been allowed to take up to 40 hours or five days of leave in each calendar year, and all other workers would have been able to take up to 72 hours or nine days of leave per year.
A study released in June by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation showed the loss of approximately 370,000 jobs within five years in California had AB 2716 become law. In addition to significant job losses, the bill imposed a direct cost, just like a tax, of $4.6 billion on California employers that would have disproportionately affected small businesses.
So while small business can relax for now, the threat of mandated paid sick leave is not over yet. The bill’s author, Assemblymember Fiona Ma, has already indicated that she will try to re-introduce the bill during the next legislative session. One must wonder: why the continued insistence on additional mandates for small businesses – California’s job creators – especially when the economy is stressed and consumer confidence is rock bottom? When will enough be enough?
NFIB has historically opposed sick leave mandates, as they assume small business owners do not offer flexible leave policies, which is not true. According to an NFIB Small Business Poll, 96 percent of small business owners provide flexible working hours for employees in the event of a personal situation, and 75 percent already voluntarily offer some form of paid sick leave to their workers.
With the latest unemployment figures at 7.3 percent and California facing a huge deficit that will be with us for many years to come – mandates are never going to be the answer. Small businesses need flexibility in order to do what they do best – create jobs. While the idea of paid sick leave is a good one – it is simply not something that California can afford now – or in the near future.