AUGUSTA – Last session, members of Maine’s business community showed up in force to testify against a proposal by Rep. Jackie Norton, D-Bangor, to require any business with more than 25 employees to provide paid sick time.

The Legislature’s Labor Committee voted 6-5 earlier this month in support of the bill, and the full Legislature is expected to take it up in January.

“The fact is that while we all get sick, not all of us can afford to take time off when we get sick,” Norton said in introducing the bill. “Nearly one out of every two Maine workers lack[s] even one paid sick day.”

Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, co-chairman of the committee, said this week that the legislation makes economic sense despite criticism from the business community.

“It’s vital for the workers of Maine,” he said. “If they are sick, if their child is sick, to be able to take a day off is very important. It makes … good business sense to make sure people can take time off when they are sick.”

Norton’s original bill would have allowed workers to earn sick days at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. For a full-time worker, that is nearly nine sick days in a year. The Labor Committee changed that to five days in the version of the bill lawmakers will consider.

But that change has not lessened the opposition from the business community.

“When you look at it in isolation, when you look at it from the social or the heart side of things, absolutely,” said Dana Connors, president of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. “It sounds great. But when you look at its impact in the broader sense, that’s when you have to take pause and say, ‘Can we afford this?'”

Connors said many companies provide paid sick leave as part of their benefits, and that the decision should be left to the employer. He said that to many small employers, mandating sick leave would be a significant cost.

“To our small organization, the mandate inherent [in] this bill would costs us almost $70,000 a year in accrued benefits that would have to go on our balance sheet,” Steve Schley, president of Pingree Associates, a Bangor-based forest management company, said in testimony earlier this year before the Labor Committee.

He said his company provides a wide range of benefits to its 32 workers. Representatives of several other companies echoed Schley’s remarks in their testimony.

“This is an issue that had folks all riled up last session,” noted Jim McGregor, director of government relations for the Maine Merchants Association. “This will hurt businesses and may end up hurting workers if employers have to cut something else to pay for this mandate.”

David Clough, Maine director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said small businesses are worried about the proposed mandate. He said the cost of doing business in Maine is already high, and the mandate – however well-intentioned – will add to that cost.

“Generally what … they are concerned about is legislative actions that increase the cost of employment in Maine, that increase the cost of doing business,” he said. “They can’t afford any more mandates.”

David Allen of Central Maine Power Co. told the panel at the hearing last spring that CMP was concerned not only about the amount of time that would be mandated for a sick employee in the bill, but that it would also allow paid time off for an employee to take care of an ill family member. He said CMP employees have sick time as well as other paid time off they can use.

The measure drew support from labor groups and the Maine Women’s Lobby, as well as other organizations representing seniors and some advocacy groups.

Some people testified about the problems they had faced when they were employed by businesses that did not provide sick time.

Because the committee has already voted on the measure, it could be considered by lawmakers early in the session, which begins Jan. 2.