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Loading ...Sick leave act would aid gay families
05.20.2009 3:13pm EDT
(Washington) Legislation that would require most employers to provide at least seven days of paid sick leave a year for most employees could be a major boon to same-sex families.
The Healthy Families Act, introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D), would include all companies with 15 or more workers and guarantee employees one paid hour off for each 30 hours worked, enabling them to earn up to seven paid sick days a year.Employees could use the leave provided by the Act to attend to their own medical needs or the medical needs of children, parents, spouses or any other individual “whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.”
Current federal law does not require that private employers provide employees with any paid sick leave.
While some employers may provide sick leave, many do not. Furthermore, employers that do provide leave do not always include families headed by same-sex couples, said Cristina Finch, senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign.
Almost half of all American workers have no paid leave to take care of themselves or family members when they fall sick. For families in the lowest quartile of earners, almost 80 percent lack paid sick leave. Forcing employees to choose between a paycheck and taking care of their own illness or a family member’s illness negatively impacts national health and costs businesses an annual $180,000,000 in lost productivity, said Finch.
“Providing paid sick days is essential for working Americans and their families to ensure they can take time for regular, preventive medical check-ups or to care for a sick family member without risking their job,” said Finch.
“For families headed by same-sex couples, when employers do not provide paid leave, there are no options beyond missing work, foregoing a paycheck, and potentially losing a job. Passage of this valuable legislation would assist millions of Americans in committed, long-term relationships care for a same-sex partner or family member.”
Republicans and business groups have vowed to fight the bill. The same issue was supposed to go up for a vote last year, but was pulled just a few months before the November election.
Want to bet that even if this law is passed the “equivalent of a family relationship” clause will be struck out? And what the hell does it mean to say that my family is the equivalent of a real family?
I am a Democrat, I am gay, I am a small business owner, and I can not afford to offer “paid sick leave” to our employees. With respect, this is not a LGBT issue, but an issue of costs to the small business. This simply does not make sense to force a small business to add additional costs to their already strained budgets.
I also have a small business. And as a small business I am exempt…. As stated in this article a small business is considered to be a business with less then 15 employees… If you don’t have 15 employees the passage of this will not effect you at all…. If you have more then 15 employees I suppose you are considered a medium sized business and would have to provide these benefits if they pass…..
maybe they should provision sick leave to what a small business can afford instead of full sick leave pay, maybe a fourth or half although when being sick money can be an issue its better than not getting any leave at all
Todd, if you can’t afford to pay somebody a measley 7 days of sick leave a year, then you shouldn’t be in business in the first place.
Seriously…People really have businesses where they can afford to hire 16+ employees and pay them all just fine for a full year, yet somehow they can’t afford the SAME exact cost if the employees miss a couple days of work out of the year. These companies profits are apparently only coming from the money they save by not paying the employees who are calling in sick anyways.
All those fun studies have proven that employees who don’t constantly agonize over the choice between health care or food, are more productive in general because they appreciate their jobs more, and they are less likely to get sick in the first place. Allowing employees avenues to create work-life balance should be part of any business’ working model in the first place.
Heck…pretend every single person in the company calls in 7 times a year. So in the end you are out exactly 1 weeks paycheck more than normal for a person. Thats a 1/52th pay increase of 1.9%, which pales even by comparison to average wage increaces.
No employee worth having will cry at trading in their yearly raise for a weeks leave the first year of the policy change. It’s not even a statistical ripple in the finances of any company paying at least 16 people minimum wage.
I think the ‘equivalent of a family relationship’ is more closely related to say, really close friends or room mates, not specifically LGBT families. I’d hope so anyway. And besides, if it was only geared towards ‘families,’ LGBT or otherwise, what would happen to people like me who never plans on marrying, even if it becomes legal? Also, as to any capitalist pig whining about having to treating his or her employees like human beings rather than draft animals, try telling your employees that your personal profit margins are more important than the health of them or their loved ones and see how productive they’ll be for you after that, eh? If you treat your workers well they might actually look forward to working for you and be more productive. Shocking revelation isn’t it? People work best when they aren’t treated like they’re expendable!
Gregg, Apparently you have never been in business for yourself, and I would suggest that you never go into business for yourself, with your attitude. My business would be exempt, and that is fine. Health Insurance, Sick Leave, Vacation, and should I dare start about the taxes/social security/medicare, unemployment, we (as a business) pay on your behalf as an employer. Probably have never thought of it in those terms. Let it go, and we will see what happens with the bill before we worry.
I guess my question is What would this do to the good employers that already offer sick leave, I am fortunate and can accumulate more than this, but it seems it offers Those Employers a way to reduce more expenses, by shortening what they already offer?