DMI's Prepared Remarks: New York City Council Committee

Delivered by Amy Traub, Director of Research, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, before the Committee on Service and Labor on November 17, 2009.

Good Afternoon. My name is Amy Traub, I am the Research Director for the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI), a non-partisan, multi-issue think tank here in New York City.

Thank you to the Committee on Civil Service and Labor for this opportunity to speak about Intro 1059, the Earned Paid Sick Time Act. I see a lot of people here who can address the human side of this policy and its tremendous implications for public health. And so my message here today is that earned paid sick time is not a pie-in-the-sky idea – it’s a proven policy with a real track record in San Francisco. We don’t have to wonder: what will happen to happen to employment if we pass this? What will happen to small businesses? We can look at what happened when they implemented the same policy in San Francisco.

San Francisco’s law was passed by ballot initiative in November 2006 and implemented in 2007. The city delayed implementation so that they could help businesses figure out how to track paid sick time and the hours accrued. It was a brand new policy in this country, and those technical issues had to be worked out. I think we can benefit from their experience.

These estimates include the benefits to companies in terms of improved employee retention, increased productivity from a healthier workforce, and reduced spread of disease on the job. When those benefits to business were quantified in San Francisco, researchers projected that companies would save more than $41 million a year from reduced turnover, $2.4 million from not paying sick workers for unproductive time on the job, and $1 million from reducing the spread of infectious disease in the workplace. That’s before the H1N1 pandemic arose – now I imagine it is even more valuable to avoid workforce contagion.

[7] Under this bill, employers that already offer equivalent paid time off or vacation time don’t need to change their policies. In San Francisco, one common employer response was to begin offering paid time off that combined sick time and vacation time. [8]

Companies want to provide paid sick days to their employees, but if their competitors aren’t providing that benefit, they find themselves at a disadvantage. This law enables employers to do the right thing.

We’ll have to think carefully about that in New York.

Earned Paid Sick Days should be a national policy. Nearly every country in the world already guarantees paid time off work for illness to employees, and the U.S. is a disappointing exception. It’s encouraging that the Obama Administration has signaled its support for the Healthy Families Act, a paid sick bill currently before Congress. But Congress moves very slowly, and in the meantime, this is a successful policy at the municipal level. New York City can help its own sick residents and help build momentum to move the entire country forward by passing this legislation.

[1] Kelly Spors. “Should Employers Be Required to Give Paid Sick Days?” Wall Street Journal Blogs. August 25, 2008.

[2] Shelley Waters Boots, Karin Martinson, and Anna Danziger, “Employers' Perspectives on San Francisco's Paid Sick Leave Policy,” Urban Institute, March 2009.

[3] Vicky Lovell and Kevin Miller, “Job Growth Strong with Paid Sick Days,” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, October 2009. See also the underlying data from the State of California Employment Development Department.

[4] John Schmitt, Hye Jin Rho, Alison Earle, and Jody Heymann, “Paid Sick Days Don’t Cause Unemployment,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, June 2009.

[5] Stephen Singer, “States push law to require paid sick days,” USA Today, August 20, 2008.

[6] “New York City’s Proposed Paid Sick Days Law: Good Health for Less than 25 Cents per Hour,” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, September 2009.

[7] Kevin Miller and Claudia Williams, “Valuing Good Health in New Hampshire: The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days,” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, October 2009.

[8] Urban Institute, 2009.

[9] “Marketplace of Ideas: Sara Flocks on Guaranteeing Paid Sick Leave,” Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, May 28, 2008.

[10] Alexa Delwiche, “Implementation Status of Paid Sick Leave Ordinance,” City and County of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Office of the Legislative Assistant. Board of Supervisors File Number 018-09. August 2009

Amy Traub
November 17, 2009