For anyone interested in reading about the negative impact on SMALL BUSINESS in Michigan regarding the Sick Time Law that was just ‘gutted’, check out this link: https://www.michamber.com/paid-sick-leave
The negative impact of the law as it was passed is HUGE for small business. Read through this carefully, then put yourself in the shoes of a small business. Like a day care. If your staff call off, which they can with no notice and no paperwork necessary to prove illness, a daycare would have to shut down, OR have additional staff to cover those absences. Keep in mind the state mandates number of workers per child, so this has a huge impact on their business. Want to know how it also impacts you? An increase in your costs. If the employer has to cover additional staff, who do you think is paying for it? YOU ARE.
Want to know how else it will impact you? If the person sitting next to you calls off, YOU get to pick up the slack. In small businesses, work still needs to get done and someone will have to do it. That will be you. The temp employee who calls off also gets paid for the sick time. Guess where that money is coming from? Out of the profits of your company, or more specifically, no pay increase for you. No way is that temp company going to eat the cost. They will pass it on to the business.
Let’s say you work in retail. People call off, so the store over schedules to accommodate. Then they send you home because they are overstaffed. You lose hours, and then lose your benefits because you’re no longer a full time employee. You look for a new job and the same thing happens, but you’re the newest employee, so you get your hours cut first. Now what?
Businesses would have to pay according to the smallest of increment allowed by your payroll system. In some cases, it’s 6 minutes. That administrative nightmare for businesses WILL cause a rise in ‘at will’ terminations, no doubt. So before attacking our government for ‘gutting’ the sick time law, think about the bigger impact on how it has the potential to cripple our small business community in Michigan.
On a side note, 50% of our workforce works for businesses with 100 employees or less. 50 PERCENT. Half of our workforce work for small businesses. If those start to shut down because of the sick time law, it could literally cripple our economy.
Rework the law, require businesses to provide paid sick time, but do it in a fashion that will allow businesses AND employees to succeed.