“While most advocates of sick leave mandates are doubtlessly well-intentioned, the data from both supporters and opponent of the policy indicate that a wide gulf exists between intentions and results.”
So stated an August 27 news release from the Freedom Foundation announcing the release of its report, The Effect of Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Policies Reviewing The Evidence, conducted by Maxford Nelsen, the foundation’s labor policy analyst.
The 25-page report, hailed by another research institution as “the most comprehensive look at mandatory paid sick leave laws to date,” came to four conclusions:
- Paid sick leave mandates fail to decrease sickness in the workplace
- Mandatory paid sick leave laws do nothing to reduce turnover
- Studies misrepresent employer support for mandatory paid sick leave laws
- Consumers, workers and employers are all negatively affected by mandatory paid sick leave policies.
Seattle’s paid sick leave law was one of the four studied, along with San Francisco’s, Washington D.C.’s and Connecticut’s. A move to establish mandatory paid sick leave law for all of Washington state is expected to surface in the next session of the Legislature.
