No More Unpaid Sick Days in Philly (Pretty Please, Mr. Mayor?)

According to CBS Philly, City Council’s Public Health Committee had a pretty productive day yesterday, moving forward a plan to mandate paid sick leave for local businesses:

Under the proposal, workers would earn one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked.  Firms with between six and twenty workers would have to offer up to four sick days per year.  Larger firms would have to offer up to seven earned sick days per year.  Businesses with fewer than six workers would be exempt.

In addition, the victims of domestic abuse could use the sick days for other personal matters, such as meeting with an attorney.

The mayor’s office opposes the move:

“There should be universal paid sick leave,” [the mayor’s commerce director, Alan] Greenberger acknowledged to the panel.  “My argument is that when we do it in the city of Philadelphia — as opposed to the larger (state or federal) level — there’s a consequence in that it hurts our competitiveness.  That may, we believe and we worry, result in less jobs for businesses, and the possibility that we think is very real that businesses will be scared off from coming here. That’s the issue for us.”

While the measure was approved unanimously in committee yesterday, it must now go to the full council for a vote that may take place as early as next week. However, in order to weather an expected second mayoral veto, the proposal would need 12 of 17 council members to sign on.

>>What do you think? Are mandated paid sick days for local businesses a good idea?

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