States push laws to require paid sick days

Yes, employers should be forced to pay employees sick leave. The people who could most afford losing a day's pay are the ones who have ample leave time. The rest of the population must drag themselves to work when they are ill or risk losing their jobs -- then they pass the illness around to others at work and in the public. Employers should also be mandated by FEDERAL law to have regular health checkups at employers' expense for all employees who work with food, children, have public contact, etc. and require those employees to have the same vaccinations for hepatitis, flu, etc. that are required of medical staff.

Granted, some employees will abuse the benefit, but the cost savings in keeping sick people home not out spreading the illness would override that cost in the long run. Dependable, decent employees will not abuse the benefit and would become much more loyal to the companies who employ them. When will companies EVER realize that being good to your employees only comes back to you in better productivity, more revenues, more honesty and loyalty in your workforce, etc.? A little bit of respect and dignity goes a long way ------------- weed out the deadbeats and reward those who so richly deserve a little bigger piece of your pie.

For the union bashing public - you should be aware that you would have no vacation time, sick leave, 40 hr. work week, etc. at ALL had it not been for the efforts of those before you who fought and some died to organize workers so that they could be humanely treated and have these benefits so many today take for granted. Why do you think big business and gov. are so against unions? Hello - because unions work for the good of EMPLOYEES -- big business and government work for the good of big business and their own greed - period.

I think that a company should offer paid sick days( perhaps 2 per year) to enhance the benefits package. It should co-inside with the annual vacation time if provided.I also think that mandating this is not a good idea for any state at this time,when most companies,and local governments are struggling just to keep their existing employees working. this mandate could be a formula for disaster.

Come to the Bahamas where 6 sick days with pay are the law, where they are treated as vacation days with faked sick notes issued by doctors for $5. It is a scam and flam, supported by government that plays havok with productivity, especially for small and medium busineses that cannot afford 30 %over staffing to make up for the mandated freebee.
It is no wonder that the U.S. and the Bahamas by way of proximity are immolating themselves for some iydillic socialistic utopia.

Paid sick days is just a ploy to get additional vacation time. Do you really think someone would not use them all up whether or not they were sick????

Keep trying to find ways to make business less competitive, but don't be surprised when you job is outsourced.

Wal-Mart says they give paid sick leave to employees working more than 34 hours per week. The kicker is finding someone that works for W-M outside of management that is actually allowed to work more than 34 hours per week. I know of no one that works over 30 hours per week. Great benefit on paper for a select few.

I can't think of any ethical system that would call creating and enforcing laws to reduce the spread of disease 'immoral'. It's no more immoral than requiring chefs or doctors to wash their hands before working.

Also, some businesses already combine sick leave with vacation and time off for any other purpose; employees annually get a certain amount of "Personal Time Off". Here, there is no advantage in fraudulently claiming 'sick days'. The approach works and likely requires no added effort to administer.

Finally, about businesses becoming "less competitive": if your management's response to competitive threats is to whine about having to pay employees who are ill a few days a year, I'd suggest that your firm needs more thoughtful and imaginative management.

The problem is plugging all the holes that allow these companies to dodge the rules... Companies like WalMart, Toyota, etc. work their employees off the clock or assign them to part time "positions" for 60 hours a week and they change the job titles 6 times a year. The bottom line is making that Almighty dollar - most companies couldn't care less about their employees, we're right back in the Great Depression days where if you don't show up for work - there are 12 people waiting to replace you...

I work in a position where i receive no vacation time, no sick days. I'm the one who in the middle of winter is sick, but cannot afford to miss. i work in small shop seemingly exempt from all rules. So when I'm inspecting your car for state safety/emmisions requirements- lets hope its not one of those days i cant afford to miss.

I've been on all sides of the fence, as an employee, manager, and now a business owner. The main concern I have is the abuse of the system. In my 30 years in the work force most employees call in for the wrong reasons. In our small business we only have 3 employees. In the past 5 years our employees have only called in sick because they just needed the day off for other reasons than being sick. That puts us in a bind because we do not have enough employees to cover a shift when someone does not show up for work. If they would request the day off we could plan ahead and make arrangements for them to be off. Now the law would force us to pay them for calling in sick when they are not actually sick. That will cause ill feelings between us and the employee. For us being short handed leads to lost sales. Granted there are those times when they are sick and we do send them home. We know they are sick and we still pay them for the day, but if they just call in sick we do not pay them. Alot of businesses will not do that so the abuse can go both ways. Making a law to require sick pay is not the answer in my opinion. If a business wants to keep employees they will do what they can to keep them. If an employee is not happy with their job they will make a change. Everything seems to work out in the long run by themselves, laws just complicate matters.

I n Europe they get 5 weeks vacation the first year they work. The work week is traditionally 35 hours. They value family, and thats why it is that way. Americans outlawed slavery 150 years ago, but do we still practice it? You bet. Oh, in the Arab countries that you depend on so much... their average work week is 28 hours. You won't probably read this though... you are too busy working. Happy heart attack suckers!

I am responding to some of the people who was talking about walmart and sick days. First to bobbyg-NO ONE IS FORCED to WORK OFF THE CLOCK AT WALMART NOT ALLOWED and can be fired. Second Walmart does provide sick days to their employees, you have to miss 2day's in order to get paid for one, which means you have the first day with no pay or use personnal,or vacation time to replace that. If you have any. 1year get's 1weeek of vacation, and so on I have been with the company for 14year's. Long enough to know what I can and can't do. This is with any company that is out their. NO one work's 60hrs a wk at walmart or toyota,and changes their title 6time's as well I dont' know where you get your information, but you need to check again.