Proponents of this proposed new state law want Ohioans to believe it would make our state more “family friendly”. It’s actually just another government-knows-best approach that would cause more harm than good to many Ohioans and to our economy. Find out here how this proposal would really impact you, your job, and your family.
- If you are an employee, this affects you!
- If you are an employer with fewer than 25 employees, this affects you!
- If you are an employer who already provides at least seven days of paid sick leave annually, this affects you!
- If you are retired, a full-time parent, or otherwise not currently in the workforce, this affects you!
Here’s how this proposal affects employees…
If you’re not one of the majority of Ohio workers who already receives paid sick leave, you would obtain a benefit you don’t currently enjoy. But mandated sick leave would also come at a significant cost to your employer, and these costs would have to be made up elsewhere. Some employers will be forced to scale back other paid benefits or to reduce wages or other forms of compensation. Would this be a good trade? If you do already receive paid sick leave, you may end up with fewer benefits, as well.
Aren’t you looking to balance work with your personal and family obligations? Many employees are, and employers have responded by offering flexible benefit plans to meet the special needs of their employees. If this proposal passes, employers would be locked into their existing leave programs and their flexibility to make even minor adjustments to your leave benefits would be limited or even eliminated. As an employee, that might mean the end to benefit plans designed to meet your specific needs.
The vast majority of Ohioans are honest, hard-working employees. But some will take advantage of the law’s loophole that allows them to use the paid sick leave whenever they want without providing medical certification. If this occurs in your workplace, your own workload may increase as you and your employer are forced to compensate. Worse, your personal safety could be compromised if someone less-experienced is forced to temporarily perform a task or operate machinery that they are not accustomed to doing.
Ohio’s economy is diverse. So, too, are Ohio’s employees. They don’t all work the same schedules or number of hours, and they don’t earn the same wage and benefits, either. When the government ignores this reality and imposes a one-size-fits-all solution on every workplace, employees are the ones who suffer.
Here’s how this proposal affects employers with fewer than 25 employees…
There’s no immediate, direct impact if you employ fewer than 25 employees. But the proposal clearly would impact you, too. The fact that all employers with 25 or more employees will be providing seven days of paid sick leave annually will make it that much harder for you to compete for these same employees if you don’t. You’ll either be forced by the market to provide comparable benefits, or you’ll end up with the less-reliable or less-skilled employees who are willing to work for fewer benefits. And, if you’re a growing company with plans to eventually increase the size of your workforce, mandated sick leave will await you as soon as you hire a 25th employee.
Here’s how this proposal affects employers who already provide at least seven days of paid sick leave annually…
If your existing policy is at least equivalent to the mandated sick leave described in the proposal, you will not be required to modify your policy. The key question is whether or not what you are currently providing is “equivalent” leave. If not, it’s very likely that your company will be required under this proposed law to add seven days of paid sick leave to your existing leave policy.
Unfortunately, the proposal is very vague and it is not clear whether a company that provides seven days of paid time off would satisfy the mandated seven days of paid sick leave. Clarification on this issue – and many other aspects of the proposal that are also unclear – will ultimately have to come from the courts. That likely means that some unlucky Ohio employers will be forced to collectively pay millions of dollars to defend against lawsuits challenging the ambiguous provisions in this proposal.
The cost implications of this proposal don’t stop at just wages and lawsuits, either. You will also incur potentially significant compliance costs, as your company will be required to maintain additional records in order to prove your existing policy complies with the statute. There are also other “intangible” costs you will have to absorb whenever an employee takes unscheduled leave at their own convenience, such as loss of productivity or premium charges for hiring experienced temporary workers. Health care and childcare facilities may even find themselves in no-win situations when an employee who takes unscheduled sick leave leaves the facility unable to maintain staff-to-patient or staff-to-child ratios required under present law.
Here’s how this proposal affects you if you are retired, a full-time parent, or otherwise not currently in the workforce…
Since you’re not in the workforce, you don’t directly receive any benefit. But, under the proposal, a working family member who doesn’t currently receive any paid sick leave benefits would be permitted to use this benefit to care for you if you are ill or have a medical appointment, as long as you are the child, parent, or spouse of the working family member.
This indirect benefit would undoubtedly be offset, however, by the harm done to Ohio’s ability to remain competitive and retain jobs. Given the fragile state of our economy, Ohio needs to demonstrate that the Buckeye State is open for business. Unfortunately, this proposal sends yet another signal to companies considering Ohio that our state may not be their most business-friendly option. When expensive, inflexible regulations like this are piled on employers, innovation, expansion, and, ultimately, job creation are stifled, and they are less competitive as a result.
The proposal also acts as a disincentive for existing small businesses to grow by hiring additional employees. Why hire a 25th employee when doing so would result in the company having to comply with the mandated sick leave law? Or, worse, some employees could lose their jobs if employers reduce their staffing levels to fall under the threshold for providing mandatory sick leave.
If the proposal passes in Ohio, Ohio would become the first –and only – state in the nation to force its employers to provide paid sick leave. With our state unemployment rate hovering right around six percent, additional burdens on employers will cost even more jobs.
Whether you’re presently in the workforce or not, you will be impacted by the substantial threats this initiative poses to the financial health of Ohio employers and the competitiveness of our state.
