Obama Backs Mandatory Sick Leave Law

By ROBB MANDELBAUM
New York Times - You're the Boss

This news from our colleague Steven Greenhouse, a Times reporter who posted on the Economix blog. Swine flu, he writes:

has given momentum to Congressional efforts to enact legislation that would guarantee paid sick days to tens of millions of workers — although it is far from clear that such legislation will be enacted. Those legislative efforts received added momentum on Tuesday when the Obama administration backed the Healthy Families Act, which would guarantee seven sick days a year to workers in companies with 15 or more employees.

Separately, and a week earlier, Representative George Miller, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, introduced temporary legislation that would require companies with 15 or more employees to guarantee five paid sick days when the company sends a worker home (or urges the person to stay home). Mr. Miller introduced that legislation, which would sunset after two years, the same day that Mr. Greenhouse reported in another story that a “lack of paid sick days may worsen flu pandemic.”

Not surprisingly, the leading small-business lobbies, like the National Federation of Independent Business and the National Small Business Association, are opposed to mandatory leave, even in the face of the H1N1 virus. ” The impetus behind this legislation is not sensible and lacks understanding of the complex dynamics of small businesses,” the N.S.B.A, wrote (pdf) to Mr. Miller. And: “it is unfathomable that Congress would consider legislation mandating additional costly requirements on small businesses.”