Bill Proposed For Mandatory Sick Pay

News 10 ABC, February 27, 2008

By Dan Adams

Each day, six million Californians show up for work knowing that if they called in sick, they wouldn't get paid. Now, a state lawmaker wants to change that by making mandatory sick time available to all workers in California.

"No one wins when anyone is sick and has to go to work sick," said Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco.

Ma has introduced Assembly Bill 2716, which would provide five sick days each year for employees of small businesses and up to nine sick days a year for those who work for large companies. Ma said that nearly 40 percent of Californians do not currently have paid sick leave benefits.

The bill would benefit working single parents like Kathleen Martinez of Antioch. When she worked at Home Depot, she said she received paid sick leave. But since accepting jobs as a food worker at a Pittsburg discount grocery store and a chain restaurant, she said she is forced to show up for work even when she is sick. Oherwise, she would not get paid.

"What's really hard is when I have to choose whether to go to work or choose to stay home with my sick child," said Martinez. "It really makes it hard that way because the mother is always leaning toward staying home with the kid, but then again there's, at the back of your mind, I'm not going to have pay."

Last year, the city of San Francisco implemented Measure F which mandates paid sick leave for anyone who works in San Francisco. That measure, as well as AB 2716, have gained the support of community groups and labor organizations.

But small business representatives said more legislation will only hurt an already depressed business market in California.

Ray Keating of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council said, "California already ranks 49th for being business friendly. When government steps in to impose mandates like this, there's going to be higher costs."

Ma said that wasn't the case after San Francisco implemented paid sick leave. "We have not heard any businesses or business organizations that have come out and said Proposition F has hurt our businesses," she said.

AB 2716 must still be heard by several committees before going before the state assembly and senate. Ma said she hopes it passes in time to make it to the governor's desk by September.