To: Members of the New York State Legislature

URGENT MEMORANDUM

To: Members of the New York State Legislature

From: Corbin Woodruff, MPA Student at Baruch College

Date: September 17, 2015

Subject: Paid Sick Leave

Dear New York State Legislature,

During the 2015 Legislative Session, Governor Cuomo signaled his support for paid sick leave in New York State. The basic concept of paid sick leave is that if an employee is ill, or is a caretaker for somebody who is sick, they will be able to miss work without the loss of income. Governor Cuomo stated in late February that he felt the Legislature lacked “the appetite” to consider paid sick days or paid family leave (Nahmias, 2015). One month later, two proposals were introduced by both the Senate and Assembly to the Governor on paid sick leave (Nahmias, 2015). However, Governor Cuomo stated that the differences between both competing proposals would cause him not to support either idea (Nahmias, 2015). He was especially dismissive of the Senate’s legislation (Nahmias, 2015). This is why I am urging you, the New York State Legislature, to reconcile differences between your competing proposals so as to present the Governor with acceptable legislation for next session.

Paid sick leave is a new frontier in both public health and workers rights. Recent research shows that paid sick leave provides benefits to society through improved public health. This research shows that it is especially rewarding for both women and children. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, children in the first two years have on average eight to ten colds (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2013). The problem is these minor illnesses can progress into an even greater issue ifuntreated, such as when a parent cannot take their child to a pediatrician. However, if a parent is able to care for the child or take their kidto a doctor, the child is able to recover much quicker due to the presence of a parent (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2013). If a child does need to spend time in a hospital, the companionship of a parent reduces their stay by 31 percent (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2013). Viewed through this lens, paid sick leave can act as preventative care as the child’s ailment is reduced much more quickly. This in return saves the family or insurance company money on treatment costs.

Another group who would benefit from a paid sick leave policy would be women. Research shows women are more likely than men to both take care of their children while ill and also act as a caregiver for the elderly and the disabled (Linderman, Houser, and White, 2014). The presence of younger children increases the likelihood that a women misses work to take care of sick child, while it has little, if any, effect on a man’s work habit (Linderman, Houser, and White, 2014). However, the issue is that poor women are amongst the least likely socio-demographic group to receive paid sick leave; in fact, nearly two-thirds of low-income women do not receive any form of compensation (Linderman, Houser, and White, 2014). This practice helps exacerbate the gender wage gap as women are more likely to take off work to care for a loved one, while being the least likely demographic to get paid for said sick leave. If New York State wishes to achieve gender pay parity, a paid sick leave system is needed.

Paid sick leave would alsobenefit New York State as a whole. Nationally, nearly forty percent of private sector workers do not receive paid sick leave from work (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2013). This puts these workers in a precarious situation. They either take time off from work, and lose income, or go to work sick. In fact, adults without paid sick days are 1.5 times more likely to show up to work sick than those who do have paid sick leave (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2013).

That stat is an issue for public health as those who do not posses paid sick leave work in service industries such as food, hospitality, and retail (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2013). These individuals have daily interactions with customers, which means they can spread their illnesses onto others, unknowingly to the customer. With these interactions, the bacteria can spread to other people. In theory, because one worker does not receive paid sick leave, he or she can infect dozens of other people. Some of these people with get sick, even without direct contact of the original contaminated worker. This inability to enact a preventive care policy increases healthcare costs for the general population, because instead of one person being treated, dozens have to be treated.

This past legislative session, New York State was close to passing paid sick leave legislation. However, differences in both plan’s structures dissuaded Governor Cuomo, though he felt the Senate version would not have passed their own chamber. As outlined before, paid sick leave provides great health benefits to society, especially children. This helps lower overall healthcare costs. A paid sick leave policy would also benefit women, as they are more likely than men to take sick leave to care for a family member, thus exacerbating the gender wage gap. Finally, paid sick leave provides workers a sense of security knowing that when they or a family member are sick, they will receive compensation if they are forced to miss work. This will be most beneficial for those who are lowest on the income ladder.

New York City has passed and implemented it’s own paid sick leave policy. The state of Connecticut has also recently implemented a structure of its’ own; the first state in the nation. It is time for New York State to be a leader on this issue and become an example for the rest of the country that has remained idle on this front.

Proposals

1. Municipal Programs

So far, only a few states and several municipalities nation wide have implemented paid sick leave policies. As mentioned before, one of those municipalities is New York City. Their sick leave system went into effect on April 1st, 2014 (Swarns, 2014). New York City’s system is very basic and easy to understand for both workers and business owners. This is important because these business owners and workers will have the burden of understanding this new system; hence, simplicity is indispensable.

In NYC, for every 30 hours worked, the employee receives 1 hour of paid sick leave (New York City Consumer Affairs, 2015). When an employee takes sick leave, the hourly rate of compensation for those individuals is no less than the current minimum wage (New York City Consumer Affairs, 2015). As mentioned before, the majority of workers who will benefit from a sick leave policy are low-wage employees. Because of this, the sick pay compensation will be equal or similar to a large swath of employees. This creates little disparity, if any, in pay for these workers when they are sick. The minimum wage regulation is also uncomplicated for businesses to understand and finance, especially those who rely on a low wage work model.

The paid sick leave system also provides another safeguard for businesses. To protect companies, employees cannot claim a sick day until he or she has spent a minimum of four months at their job (New York City Consumer Affairs, 2015). New York City created a paid sick leave policy that helps workers while also balances the interests of businesses who may question whether they can afford pay sick leave. This policy can be used as a potential model for the rest of New York State.

The municipality of New York City has a sick leave policy in place that could easily be drafted by the legislature and adopted statewide. However, if the legislature choses not to go this route, New York State can also look to New York City’s neighboring city across the Hudson River in Jersey City for a paid sick leave system.

Mayor Steve Fullop and the Jersey City Council approved the policy in September of 2013 that private businesses must provide paid sick leave (McDonald, 2014). The following January, the law was implemented (McDonald, 2014). There are both similarities and several differences between Jersey City’s system and that of New York City’s structure. Employees that are eligible include full-time, part-time, and season workers. This does not include independent contractors (McDonald, 2014). For this to apply, a business must employ ten or more workers. Companies with less than 10 workers are not mandated to offer paid sick leave (McDonald, 2014).

Similar to New York City, a worker is not eligible for paid sick leave as soon as he or she starts working. An employee begins to accumulate sick pay when they start working for the company (McDonald, 2014). However, the employer is not required to grant you paid sick leave until you are ninety day into the job (McDonald, 2014). Similar to New York City, this protects businesses from workers who may potentially try to abuse this new system.

At the municipal level, it is hard to be more creative in your policies options. This is often the case because municipalities have fewer resources to operate with such as revenue and enforcement. This is possibly the reason as to why New York City and Jersey City have such similar systems in place. Either way though, these two municipalities at least have paid sick time in place.

1. State-Level Systems

If the New York State Legislature does not wish to use the blueprints of a municipal system for guidance, they can turn to Connecticut for direction on paid sick leave policy. In 2012, Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law the first state mandated paid sick leave policy, which pertains to service workers (Arnold, 2014). Just this past year, the Legislature and the Governor passed another bill to help enhance the 2012 law (Arnold, 2014).

Similar to the systems in place in New York City and Jersey City, employees must accrue a certain threshold of hours worked before they can use their earned sick days. In Connecticut, an employee of a company must accrue 680 hours of work for that company before they are allowed to tap into their paid sick leave (Schwartz, 2011). This means that an employee who works forty hours a week must wait seventeen weeks until they are allowed to use sick leave. This is a longer interim period than that of New York City or Jersey City. This provides even more protection for businesses than the two comparative municipal systems, as employees must wait longer.

Connecticut’s policy requires employers with fifty or more employees of the previous year to provide paid sick leave for the upcoming year (Arnold, 2014). The law also addresses the incentive for employees to drop below the fifty-employee threshold. It bars companies from transferring or terminating employees for the purpose of being below the fifty-employee threshold, just to avoid contributing paid sick leave (Arnold, 2014). This last provision, similar to New York City, protects the company from an employee abusing the paid sick leave system.

Connecticut is not the only state that has a paid sick leave system in place. The state of Massachusetts approved a paid sick leave system during the 2014 election cycle (Massachusetts Court System, 2015). However, unlike Connecticut, this legislation was passed through a ballot petition known as “Question 4” (Massachusetts Court System, 2015). This means that voters approved the program in 2014, not the state legislature. This is different from the situation in Connecticut because it gave voters the direct choice in this matter, as opposed to choosing secondarily through a state legislator. “Question 4” was implemented on July 1st, 2015.

Aside from its’ path to approval and implementation, the Massachusetts and Connecticut systems are quite similar. If an employer, private or public, has eleven or more employees, they are required by law to provide compensation for sick time during a calendar year (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2015). Employees can earn up to 40 hours of sick time through a work year. If an employee does not use all 40 hours they accrue over the course of the year, they can roll it over into the following work year (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2015). However, to protect businesses from excessive use, employees cannot use more than 40 hours a year, or 5 business days (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2015). Businesses with less than ten employees do not have to provide compensation for sick leave, but are still required to allow sick leave (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2015).

In protection of businesses, an employer can require certification of the need for sick time if one of their employees has used sick time for more than 24 consecutive hours (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2015). If this is the case, employers cannot delay the compensation payments provide to employees if they have not yet received certification from a medical professional (Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2015). This provisions holds employees honest about their ailments while also providing a safeguard in case the health situation is a real issue for the employee.

As is the case between Jersey City and New York City, there are minimal differences between these two statewide paid sick time systems. Although the differences between both state’s approaches are notable. Connecticut does not give employers permission to ask employees for a medical note if they use paid sick time for more than 24 consecutive hours. However, this is a provision in Massachusetts’s law, intended to provide some security for business owners.

1. International

Aside from options at the state or municipal level here in the United States, the New York State Legislature can look at countries in Western Europe for guidance on a paid sick leave system. One such country is the United Kingdom, who has a policy called Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) (United Kingdom Government, 2015). There are several noticeable differences between the UK’s system and the current programs in the United States.

The United Kingdom’s Statutory Sick Pay policy does not compensate workers at hourly increments. Instead, the system reimburses an employee weekly (United Kingdom Government, 2015). The total payout from SSP is 88.45 pounds, which is roughly 134 U.S. dollars (United Kingdom Government, 2015) (XE Currency Converter, 2015). The difference though is for how long an employee can recoup income. The SSP program allows an employee who is eligible to receive benefits for up to 28 weeks (United Kingdom Government, 2015). That is a colossally increased ceiling from the systems in the United States, with a typical maximum around seven to ten days. Similar to the U.S. systems, the SSP is paid by the workers employer (United Kingdom Government, 2015).

Unlike paid sick leave policies in the United States, the United Kingdom’s SSP has different eligibility requirements. In the UK, an individual must be ill for a minimum of four consecutive days, including non-work days, before they can claim Statutory Sick Pay (United Kingdom Government, 2015). This is different from the systems mentioned before as an employee can claim a sick day on the first day, without a wait period. It is in this time that the worker must inform their employer that they are sick before the employer’s deadline to claim Statutory Sick Pay (United Kingdom Government, 2015). If the company does not have a deadline policy, the employee must claim it within a week.

There are several ways in which an employee cannot draw from Statutory Sick Pay. First, an employee cannot receive benefits if they have received the maximum amount of SSP, which is 28 weeks (United Kingdom Government, 2015). This is similar to the United State’s hard cutoff policy. Second, an individual cannot claim SSP if they are already receiving Statutory Maternity Pay (United Kingdom Government, 2015). The issue of double assistance payments is a greater issue in the UK than in the US because they have a national Maternity Leave system. Similar to paid sick leave, the United States does not have a national paternity leave program in place.

The United Kingdom’s policy also deals with “linked periods”; a concept not seen in US policies because of how short the programs are. In the UK, if an individual has regular periods of sickness, these continuous sick days can become linked (United Kingdom Government, 2015). In order for this to happen, the sick periods must qualify for SSP by lasting the minimum of four days. In connection to this, these bouts of illness must occur within eight weeks of each other (United Kingdom, 2015). If this happens continuously for more than three years, then an employee is no longer eligible for SSP (United Kingdom, 2015). This is a protection for employers, as they do not have to bear the responsibility for somebody who is chronically ill. In this case, these individuals qualify for other government social services.