Enforcement Accelerating, First Fines Issued
New
York City’s mandatory sick leave law turned one year old on Wednesday. The law
applies to most people who work at least eighty hours per year for businesses
with five or more employees. Mayor Bill de Blasio made an expansion of
mandatory sick leave laws a priority when he entered office in part of an
expansion of government involvement in business. In its inaugural twelve
months, the law resulted in hundreds of complaints being filed against City
businesses, but enforcement has recently accelerated. The New York City
Department of Consumer Affairs has received 472 complaints of alleged
violations, 116 of which it closed through mediation.
What Happens Next:
Businesses were given a
six-month grace period in which fines were not levied for breaches of the new
law. However, New York City regulators recently picked up the pace of
enforcement, issuing the first six fines for violations of the law earlier this
week, totaling $39,350.
What It Means For Small Business:
Government
mandates requiring employers to provide minimum levels of leave increase the
bureaucratic complexity of doing business in New York and elsewhere and require
additional staffing that some businesses do not have. NFIB New York issued a statement last year regarding the New York
law, noting the difficulties it created for New York employers: “Small business
needs relief from the endless barrage of government imposed mandates driving up
the costs of doing business in this state. More costly and burdensome mandates
like paid sick leave will only worsen the business climate and slow the state’s
economic recovery.”
NFIB’s Research Foundation has done extensive state-specific studies on the effects of mandated paid leave laws.
Additional Reading:
News media outlets covering the
first year of New York City’s sick leave law include Crain’s New York Business, WNYC-FM, and the New York Daily News.
