Paid Sick Leave Hasn't Harmed D.C. Businesses

MBTPI strongly supports legislative proposals requiring employers to provide workers with earned sick and safe leave. This critical public health tool allows employees to attend to health needs for themselves or their children, thus protecting coworkers, classmates, and business customers from communicable illness. Overall, earned sick leave would lower health care costs and improve workplace well-being and productivity. According to a report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), if a law guaranteeing workers this right were to pass in Maryland, health care expenses in the state would fall by $41 million annually, with roughly half the savings returning to taxpayers.

Unfortunately, the Maryland Earned Sick and Safe Leave Act (House Bill 735/Senate Bill 703), which would have allowed workers to earn a minimum of one hour of paid sick leave per 30 hours on the clock, failed in committee last session. Critics of the bill claimed the law would impose too great a burden to small businesses, though the IWPR report disputed that and a large majority of Marylanders supported the bill according to independent polling.

While initiatives have been introduced in several states in the past few years, Connecticut remains the only state to have passed such legislation (it did so through a close vote in 2012), but several cities, including San Francisco and Washington D.C., have had such requirements for over half a decade.

Effective in May of 2008, the District of Columbia's Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act mandates that employers offer one hour of paid leave to workers for every 37 to 87 hours worked (depending on the size of the company) to workers that have been employed at that firm for at least one consecutive 12 year period.

For the first time since its enactment, the D.C. Auditor has now studied the economic impact of the law on the private sector. The report, which was released Wednesday, includes the results of a survey sent to 800 D.C. businesses that asked owners if paid sick leave would lead them to move their firm out of the District, to which over 87 percent responded in the negative. The audit further found that this new law did not discourage new businesses from forming in the District, and 91 percent of employers in the District complied with the law's requirement of posting the notice of sick leave rights within the workplace.

This provides strong evidence that sick leave laws do not create excessive burdens on small business, which advocates can point to in this coming session should related bills be reintroduced.

The Week Ahead

Last week we blogged about the new revenue estimates for Maryland, the annual briefing of the Joint Committee on Welfare Reform, new data from the Census Bureau, and the August state-level employment figures. Also last week, Governing Magazine highlighted our brief on expanded gambling.

Monday, September 24th

• Exchange Financing and Sustainability Advisory Committees of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Board meet. 2-4pm at the Maryland Health Care Commission, 4160 Patterson Avenue, Baltimore.
• Board of Directors of the Maryland Health Insurance Plan meet about messaging and a memorandum of understanding between MHIP and the Exchange. 3pm in suite 630, 1 Calvert Plaza, 201 E. Baltimore Street, Baltimore.

Tuesday, September 25th

• Transportation and the Environment Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee does a site visit to Thurgood Marshall International Airport, from 11am to 2pm.
• Public Health and Long Term Care Subcommittee of the House Health and Government Operations Committee meets to discuss HB 1090. 1pm in room 241, House Office Building, Annapolis.
• Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board meets. 9am to 1pm, University of Maryland BioPark, 801 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore.

Wednesday, September 26th

• Maryland Nonprofits offers Forming a Nonprofit: The Paperwork. This is a training program; for more information check out Maryland Nonprofits' events page. 

Thursday, September 27th

• Video Lottery Facility Location Commission meets to receive an update on legal proceedings and to consider an extension request from CBAC Gaming and the City of Baltimore. This meeting will be held via teleconference. Interested parties may attend the meeting from Room 111 of the Legislative Services Building. A portion of the meeting may be held in closed session. 11am in room 111, Legislative Services Building, 90 State Circle, Annapolis.
• Commission to Study Campaign Finance Law meets. 1pm in room 130, House Office Building, Annapolis.
• Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council meets. 3-5pm in the Joint Hearing Room, Department of Legislative Services, 90 State Circle, Annapolis.
• Governor's Commission on Small Business holds a town hall meeting. 10am to 1pm in the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center, 44219 Airport Road, California, MD. 
• Bureau of Labor Statistics releases county-level employment data.
• Maryland Nonprofits offers Build Capacity with Dynamic Volunteer Engagement. This is a training program; for more information check out Maryland Nonprofits' events page. 

Friday, September 28th

• Maryland Advisory Committee on Manufacturing Competitiveness holds a board meeting. 10am to noon in the 17th floor conference room, World Trade Center, 401 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore.

The Week Ahead

Last week we blogged about the 1.2 million Marylanders who are set to gain critical health care protections next year, thanks to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the governor's announcement of a second special session to focus on gaming, beginning August 9th.

Tuesday, July 31st

• Video Lottery Facility Location Commission meets. The Commission is the state body responsible for awarding the five licenses to operate video lottery operations. The primary topic at the second special session will be whether or not to add a sixth license. The Commission will discuss various legal proceedings, an update on gambling implementation, an overview of the background investigation of a Baltimore City license applicant, and consideration of the Baltimore City license proposal. A portion of the meeting will be held in closed session.  1pm in the Joint Hearing Room of the Legislative Services Building, Annapolis.
• Governor's Commission on Small Business holds a board meeting. 10am to noon in the 17th Floor Conference Room at the World Trade Center, 401 East Pratt Street, Baltimore.
• Maryland Nonprofits offers Researching and Writing Foundation Grant Proposals 101. This is a Maryland Nonprofits training; for more information or to register go to their events page.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

• Board of Public Works holds its regular meeting. 10am in the Governor's Reception Room on the second floor of the State House.
• Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Authority meets. 9am in the lower level conference room at the One Call Center, 7223 Parkway Drive, Hanover. 
• Maryland Nonprofits offers a webinar on starting a nonprofit. This is a Maryland Nonprofits training; for more information or to register go to their events page.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases metropolitan employment data for June.

Friday, August 3rd

• BLS releases national employment figures for July. The unemployment rate in June stalled at 8.2 percent.