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Paid Sick Leave Is a Failed Cure. Washington state already has a mandate. Contrary to Sen. Murray, it hasn’t helped arrest coronavirus.
Wall Street Journal ^ | March 11, 2020 | Aaron Yelowitz and Michael Saltsman

Posted on 03/12/2020 6:11:20 AM PDT by karpov

...

San Francisco was the first locality to require paid sick leave, starting in 2007. The law brought modest benefits and significant costs. A 2011 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found nearly 30% of the lowest-wage earners reported layoffs or reduced hours, with employers unable to offset the cost through price hikes alone. Connecticut’s sick-leave policy was the focus of a 2016 study (of which Mr. Yelowitz was a co-author), which found a “sizeable decrease in labor demand” as a consequence of the mandate.

Today 12 states, the District of Columbia and several dozen other localities require some form of paid sick leave. In Washington state, employees earn one hour of leave for every 40 worked. In California, they earn one hour for every 30, or employers can provide 24 hours up front. Both states also have localities that require more-generous benefits.

The coronavirus’s domestic arrival in these two states complicates Ms. Murray’s promise that a paid-leave mandate could “prevent” its spread. A nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., northeast of Seattle, is described as the “epicenter” of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. Employees, residents and relatives have all tested positive for the disease. California has the third-highest concentration of cases.

Why didn’t paid-leave regimes in California and Washington prevent the spread of the disease, as Ms. Murray imagines? According to Johns Hopkins researchers, it takes five days on average for coronavirus symptoms to present. That means paid sick leave is of limited use. No employee would come to work or a public gathering knowing he had the coronavirus, and no employer would want him to. But he might show up contagious before he has ever showed symptoms.

Ms. Murray’s plan is also uniquely ill-suited to the tenuous economic environment.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; sickleave

1 posted on 03/12/2020 6:11:20 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Mandatory paid sick leave, and mandatory paid maternity/paternity leave, will become a legal reality in this country once this virus event is over.

Trump actually supports them, so I don’t see what there is that will stop this.


2 posted on 03/12/2020 6:13:46 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

I’m in favor of the payroll tax cut because I can always use some extra cash in my pocket, briefly, then spending it to stimulate the economy.


3 posted on 03/12/2020 6:16:52 AM PDT by relee (Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away)
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To: relee

Sounds like nobody in Congress is onboard with the payroll tax cut. Not even Republicans (Goober Graham was poo-pooing it yesterday).

It will give Trump an issue to run on though.
“I tried. Pelosi and the Democrats would not let me.”


4 posted on 03/12/2020 6:22:56 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: karpov

Paid sick leave is a good thing. What is unhelpful is being penalized for using the paid sick leave. If you are threatened with the loss of the job that you need to pay your bills, you will drag yourself in and infect all of your coworkers.


5 posted on 03/12/2020 6:32:52 AM PDT by BlackAdderess
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To: BlackAdderess

The City of Pittsburgh has a paid sick leave law.

There was a five-year court battle because affected businesses claimed that the state’s home rule charter did not give them the power to do this.

The State Supreme Court gave them the power, ruing that municipalities must have very broad powers on any issue that involves “public health”.

Which the Lefty Mayor is now using to support his argument for...…..wait for it...…...Gun Control!

Slippery slope.


6 posted on 03/12/2020 6:38:40 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: karpov
There are about 2,000 working hours in a typical year of 40-hour weeks. My preferred approach to doing business is to pay staff 15% more than the market rate on an hourly basis, and then have them take up to 300 hours (7.5 weeks) off every year without pay.

My business model is predicated on the understanding that paying people for time they don’t work is one of the dumbest business practices ever imagined.

7 posted on 03/12/2020 6:52:58 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Oh, but it's hard to live by the rules; I never could and still never do.")
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Paid sick leave is not gun control. Slippery slopes are logical fallacies, not justifications for holding a view that has nothing to do with the actual merits.

Pittsburg will sadly pay the price for electing an opportunistic leftist.


8 posted on 03/12/2020 6:54:09 AM PDT by BlackAdderess
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To: karpov

Will the payroll tax cut be a real tax cut or just a juggling act that gives me more until tax season comes around next year when they will want it all back?


9 posted on 03/12/2020 6:55:04 AM PDT by BuffaloJack ("Security does not exist in nature. Everything has risk." Henry Savage)
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To: karpov

Most decent places to work already had this and more. Think “Cadillac health plan”.

Example, we had 2 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick/family, these were front loaded and could be used right away. After this policy mandate, we lost our vacation, our total ‘benefit’ was 2 weeks sick/vacation/family leave. This had to be earned before use and any unpaid days taken were met with a three strike policy.


10 posted on 03/12/2020 6:58:23 AM PDT by moehoward
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To: karpov

If an employee is sick they should not be penalized for staying home. I don’t want someone with so much as the sniffles preparing my food, let alone the coronavirus.

Of course business interests will fight paid sick leave tooth and nail. Can’t afford not to wring every bit of labor out of the working man. I’m sick of corporations threatening economic collapse every time someone suggests the slightest regulation. If the coronavirus is not contained ER beds will fill up with coronavirus patients, leaving people with other serious conditions in the lurch, and the economy will take a hit anyway. The US economy is crashing anyway, might as well save some lives.


11 posted on 03/12/2020 7:10:43 AM PDT by FormerFRLurker (Keep calm and vote your conscience.)
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To: karpov

Of course paid sick leave is no cure. There is no cure! But, what paid sick leave will do is take the infected person out of the population until they are no longer contagious.


12 posted on 03/12/2020 8:21:27 AM PDT by eastexsteve
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Yes...... then play her sound bite.

She opposes beneficial change in tax policy

We are now in the era of political fruit basket turn over.

Any thing goes


13 posted on 03/12/2020 8:25:01 AM PDT by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Progressives are existential American enemies)
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To: karpov

It’s academic that this is coming. Most people consider it common sense. Trump supports it and so do most Republicans. 70% of workplaces already give it to employees. So the economic impact of this is minimal.


14 posted on 03/12/2020 8:37:58 AM PDT by david1292
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To: relee

payroll tax cut...The big question is are they talking about
not taking out Fed withholding for a while? Let’s say they
do and we all get some extra money...I have heard nothing
about actually lowering the tax rate for the year.

If your tax rate (i.e. tax due next April 16th) stays the
same but they took less out - everyone will be in for a large surprise bill next 4/15....

details are needed


15 posted on 03/12/2020 9:49:27 AM PDT by Mrs. B.S. Roberts
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