State ranks poor for sick leave

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BANGOR – A national women and children’s advocacy group on Tuesday gave Maine a near-failing grade for its lack of effective policies on paid sick leave for public- and private-sector workers.

But the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Maine chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses are disputing the study. They say that businesses are doing the best they can financially to allow workers flexibility when they or their family members are sick, without being told to do so by the government.

On Tuesday, the National Partnership for Women & Families, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C., released what it calls the “most comprehensive report ever to examine laws and regulations” regarding paid sick leave for private businesses and state governments. Maine’s grade was a D-minus.

The federal government’s policies also were included in the review.

The Maine Women’s Lobby, based in Augusta, assisted in the report’s release.

The release of the report coincided with the introduction of legislation called the Healthy Families Act in Congress by U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Conn. The bill would guarantee seven paid sick days per year for full-time employees and a pro-rated number for part-time employees in businesses with at least 15 workers.

According to the National Partnership’s report, not one state requires by law that private businesses guarantee their employees paid sick leave.

Approximately 59 million workers, including 47 percent of the private sector, do not have any sick leave at all, while 86 million workers, including those whose companies offer paid sick leave, cannot take paid time off from work to care for their sick children.

In Maine, 61 percent of employers offer sick leave for full-time employees and 30 percent offer it to their part-time workers, said Sarah Standiford, spokeswoman for the Maine Women’s Lobby.

Among the categories that the National Partnership reviewed for its report were whether state legislatures mandated that an employee have the option to use sick leave to stay home and take care of a sick child or other family members even though the worker was not sick.

It also looked at whether state governments require that businesses offer paid leave if workers face a short-term disability. And the report reviewed whether state employees could pool unused sick time so that a co-worker who has a family member stricken with a longer-term illness can dip into that paid-leave pool to take care of that relative.

“A nation that truly values families would allow workers to use their paid sick leave to care for a child or other family member who is ailing,” the report states.

Standiford said thousands of Maine workers, including single mothers or fathers, are forced on any given day to take time off from work without pay if they or their children are sick, or to go to work ill and send children to day care facilities.

Some of those workers, she said, have to quit their jobs or are let go because of absenteeism during illness.

“In a state that does tout that Maine is a good place to live, this counters that,” Standiford said.

While businesses, particularly smaller ones with fewer than 50 employees, may say it is too expensive to provide paid sick time as a benefit, Standiford said, they could lose money in “underreported costs” if they don’t offer the benefit. Those include the price of low productivity, possible infection of other workers, and the expense of hiring new employees to replace those who leave because of illness.

“That’s the conversation we need to be having,” she said.

Elinor Goldberg, executive director of the Maine Children’s Alliance, said another cost is the price paid by children whose parents are under stress because they are struggling to balance the care of their family with whether to take time off without pay.

That can lead to aggression, Goldberg said, “and children are often the butt of it.”

She said she “understands the needs of business” but added that “there’s no additional costs to society in general” when businesses allow paid sick leave for employees to take care of themselves, sick children or elderly parents.

But David Clough, executive director of the Maine chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said paid sick time does cost small businesses money that many of them cannot afford.

“It’s easy for people to say that these costs are not significant, but they’re not the ones running the small businesses,” Clough said. “If there is a societal benefit, then why doesn’t society pay for it instead of small businesses? … It’s a difficult issue and a controversial issue. It’s one of those that can cause ambivalence.”

In March, the Legislature’s labor committee killed any attempt to create legislation that would have required that businesses employing 15 or more employees give at least five days of paid sick leave a year to full-time workers and to part-time employees working 25 hours or more a week.

Peter Gore, senior governmental affairs officer with the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, said numerous companies have estimated that if they were required by the state to offer a minimum five days of paid sick leave, it would add between $30,000 and $100,000 to their annual business costs.

“Since there aren’t any other states requiring paid sick leave, should Maine be a national leader when the cost of doing business in Maine already is higher than anywhere else?” Gore asked. “I’ve had businesses tell me, ‘If this goes into effect, we’ll have to close our doors or move.’ Is this a good thing?”

What the labor committee did do in March was ask the state Department of Labor to undertake an exhaustive study on wages and benefits, said Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman. That report, in the data-collection phase, is expected in January.

Fortman said the report would allow businesses, child and family advocates and legislators “to have a conversation based on fact instead of anecdote or somebody’s opinion.”

In the National Partnership’s report, five states fared above a B-minus grade.

California was the only state to receive the highest grade – a B-plus. It requires that businesses give workers the flexibility to use paid sick time to care for a sick family member and that workers receive paid sick leave if struck with a short-term disability.

Four states received B or B-minus grades – Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. The rest, along with the District of Columbia and the federal government, received grades of C-plus or below.

Besides Maine, nine other states received D-minus grades, while Louisiana and Mississippi got F’s.