Guaranteeing Seven Days of Paid Sick Leave -Ohio's Healthy Families Act
In addition to what is proving to be an unusually interesting Presidential election campaign, one of the "hot" issues in Ohio this year is a ballot issue called the Healthy Families Act . Voters will be asked to decide whether to enact into law a measure that would force businesses with 25 or more employees to guarantee their employees at least seven (7) days sick leave. Similar measures are apparently playing out all across the country according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. There's also a bill in Congress on the subject as explained by the HR Capitalist blog in the post: Why You May Add 7 Paid Sick Days to Your PTO Policy in 2009.
I am not a labor lawyer and as yet I haven't really digested the proposed law. But last week I actually got a call from one of the factions asking if I was going to write about it. So that got me to thinking about the importance of this proposed legislation to Ohio businesses and made me decide that I probably should make a post about it.
Mike Bowers of the Ideas to Deals blog has an excellent post summarizing the basics of the Healthy Families Act. A Columbus Dispatch editorial supports passage of the law. However, as Ohio Employer's Law Blog's Jon Hyman notes in his post, Governor Strickland's press release against the Healthy Families Act, Ohio's Democratic Governor has come out against the Act. In this press release, Gov Strickland calls the ballot initiative " unworkable, unwieldy, and ,,, detrimental to Ohio's economy."
Solely in the interests of providing information (and not necessarily as an endorsement) here is a fact sheet and an economic impact fact sheet provided to me from those seeking to defeat the measure. If someone wants to send me similar fact sheets in favor, I'll post those too.
Earlier this year, Jon Hyman of the Ohio Employer's Law Blog posted a fairly detailed analysis concluding the measure should be rejected in his post Deconstructing the Ohio Healthy Families Act and received many posted comments. Jon has also promised to post further updates as we get closer to decision day.
In Jon's post, he also gathers some links to organizations interested in the Act, most of which seem to be opposed to the measure. In the interests of full information being out there, here are some other links:
- Ohioans for Healthy Families, the group lobbying for the legislation on its Sick Days Ohio website has several news items favoring the Act, explains why one might.believe it's necessary, and how to get involved on that side of the issue
- Policy Matters Ohio, a nonproft research organization has also come out in favor of the Act.
- Ohio Business Votes, a lobbying group opposing the measure, has an informational website explaining how the Act would negatively affect both employers and employees.
Jon also provides some guidance as to Should businesses be reviewing paid sick leave policies in advance of the Healthy Families Act.
I'm not really sure yet what I think,either professionally or personally. On the one hand it boggles my mind that there are actually businesses of any size out there that don't provide at least this much paid sick leave in this day and age. And it seems fundamental to me that, especially given how long it usually takes to see a doctor once you show up for your appointment, we ought to require this sort of thing.
On the other hand, I am mindful of the burden the Healthy Families Act may place on businesses. And the fact that Gov. Strickland thinks it's a bad idea is also very influential on me.
So for me, the issue is really about understanding how big a burden this places on businesses. If I ultimately conclude it's enormous, then I will probably, reluctantly, be opposed to its passage.
UPDATE: The Healthy Families Act has been pulled from Ohio's November ballot. The push for federal legislation continues.
