美国国家公共电台 NPR Businesses Push Back On Paid-Sick-Leave Laws

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

About three-quarters of private sector¹ workers get paid sick leave, but there is no federal law requiring employers to pay for sick time. In recent years, dozens of states and local governments have passed their own laws, bills that typically require employers to provide between three and seven paid sick days a year. But now, as NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, some employers are pushing back and are looking for ways to pre-empt those regulations.

YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE²: Lisa Horn says larger employers are concerned that the landscape for paid-leave regulation is getting way too complex.

LISA HORN: Mainly because of this kind of hodgepodge or patchwork³ of growing number of states and localities implementing⁴, specifically, paid-sick-leave mandates⁵.

NOGUCHI: So Horn, who directs congressional affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management, says her group is helping⁶ draft a House Republican proposal. It's still a work in progress, but Horn says, the basic idea would be to set a floor for an amount of paid-sick leave employers could voluntarily offer. If that minimum threshold is met, she says, the employer would then be exempt⁷ from state or local regulations.

HORN: They would then be deemed to have satisfied those state and local paid-leave mandates and other requirements.

NOGUCHI: Pre-emption laws are increasingly common, not just for paid leave. Some states pre-empt city and county regulations governing minimum wage, anti-discrimination policies or ride-sharing. So far, 19 states have legislation that pre-empt local governments from passing their own laws on paid sick leave. Proponents⁸, like Horn, argue federal and state pre-emption laws alleviate⁹ big administrative¹⁰ burdens for employers. But opponents argue such efforts undercut states' and cities' authority and the will of local voters who want more generous benefits for workers. Brooks¹¹ Rainwater is senior executive for the National League of Cities.

BROOKS RAINWATER: We are concerned that we could start to see more super-pre-emptive measures where both the federal government as well as the state government is impinging on city rights.

NOGUCHI: Paid leave, whether it's sick days or time off to care for a new child, is politically popular on both sides of the aisle¹². Democratic proposals include a bill that would create a fund to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. Another would allow workers to earn up to seven days of annual paid sick leave. Republicans, meanwhile, last week passed a controversial proposal that would allow employers to offer paid leave as compensation for overtime¹³ work. Another proposal would offer tax credits for businesses voluntarily offering leave. Vicki Shabo, vice¹⁴ president of the National Partnership¹⁵ for Women and Families, says her group's post-election poll showed 82 percent support for paid sick leave.

VICKI SHABO: And that includes two-thirds of Republicans, three-quarters of independents and virtually all Democrats¹⁶.

NOGUCHI: That underscores a March poll from the Pew Research Center showing support for paid leave ranging from 67 to 85 percent depending on the specific policy. President Trump¹⁷ has endorsed¹⁸ parental¹⁹ leave and has not repealed²⁰ his predecessor's executive order granting paid sick leave to federal contractors²¹. Shabo says some companies in recent years have expanded their leave policies. But she says low-wage workers still have less access than their white-collar professional counterparts.

SHABO: Where we've seen progress has been in places regionally in the West where Oregon and California have both adopted paid-sick days laws.

NOGUCHI: Analysts²² say it's not clear that Congress has the political will to act on any of the proposals on paid sick leave. But that could change as state and local governments press ahead with their own initiatives. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.