Skimping on sick days is sick

Every now and again an issue comes along that tests our decency and righteousness as a society. Paid sick leave is one such issue. 

As a small business owner in New York City, I am in a unique position to weigh in on the matter both pragmatically and substantively. And as a candidate for elected office, I have an obligation to share my thoughts on such a controversial issue with those whom I seek to represent.

Let’s start with the facts, not the rhetoric. Fourteen of the 15 most productive and prosperous nations in the world already have such a law. San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Connecticut each have paid sick leave. A dozen other states are considering such a law.

New York’s version of the paid sick leave law would require that businesses with five to 19 employees give workers five paid sick days a year. Firms with 20 or more employees would have to offer nine days. Right now, more than a million New Yorkers don’t get paid if they have to take a sick day.

A recent Quinnipiac poll reveals that 73 percent of New Yorkers favor mandatory paid sick leave legislation. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Speaker Christine Quinn and many business owners do not. They argue that the law would cost jobs and drive business away from the city. These are real concerns. It’s true that the law would impose an additional financial and logistical burden on the businesses that do not already offer paid sick leave. So it’s quite possible that the existing legislation might require some tinkering.

But this debate should begin with one simple question ... What’s right? 

I think even those who oppose it, if pressed, would concede that in a perfect world, paid sick leave — like paid vacation and paid personal days, which are already commonplace — should be a part of the compact between employer and employee. Further, when sick employees show up for work, known as “presenteeism,” there is a significant and costly impact on an organization, both in terms of risking the spread of illness and in diminished productivity, quality and attention to safety.

So let’s try to make our world a little more perfect. If the answer to my question is that paid sick leave is the right thing to do, then we must make it a priority, like universal healthcare and social security, both of which impose burdens on business that our society has deemed acceptable and necessary.

As a small business owner, I am repulsed by government overreach, and I have given public testimony in City Council chambers denouncing it. I have been professionally frustrated by the apparent contempt for business and a stunning dearth of comprehension of the basic laws of economics exhibited by a parade of elected city officials, both past and present. I have even considered moving my business elsewhere due to a litany of onerous laws, regulations and unfair enforcement. But I stayed because, despite the hardships, there is no better place to do business than New York City. 

It would be easy to dismiss paid sick leave as yet another anti-business measure, but that’s short-sighted. I offer my employees paid sick leave now. I would like to think that I do so solely because I am a fair and decent person. But I also offer it because it’s good business. It benefits my company in ways that cannot be measured on a profit and loss statement. 

My employees who have benefited from paid sick leave (and have yet to abuse it) have a noticeably greater stake in a business that does not belong to them. They report to work on time. They answer the phones in a more customer-friendly manner. They will stay later if business demands it. They will go out of their way to go the extra mile. In short, I am convinced that in a highly competitive environment, where employee performance can make or break a business, there are few returns on investment better than paid sick leave. 

A city that mandates paid sick leave makes itself more attractive to its workforce — the same workforce that becomes consumers in its free time — and hence more enticing to existing and prospective businesses.

FDR once said, “if you treat people right they will treat you right ... 90 percent of the time.”

As a people that embrace free and fair enterprise, we should all be comfortable with those odds.

 The Points of View column is open to all readers. Cliff Stanton is an entrepreneur, treasurer of the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Van Cortlandt Development Corporation and a City Council candidate.