A city-appointed task force is expected to present a paid sick leave proposal to the council on Feb. 24.
Mandatory Sick Leave Laws May Be Coming for Minneapolis Small Businesses
Small business owners in Minneapolis are keeping a close watch on a series of so-called “listening sessions” organized by a group pushing for paid-time-off policies.
Workplace Partnership Group, a task force under Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, is set to report to the City Council with a proposal on Feb. 24.
Earlier this month, business owners packed the room during a Workplace Partnership listening session to voice strong opposition to the idea of mandating paid sick time.
Local Businesses Rally Against the Agenda
A hardware store owner asked the group to recognize the differences between a large company with salaried workers and a shop like his, which relies on hourly workers to fill urgent needs.
“Many of us in this room are in businesses where if the person is not there, somebody else has to step in to do that,” he said.
Another business owner expressed frustration with “the city getting involved in more labor laws that we have to adapt our businesses to.”
Tensions have been brewing since last fall, when the Workplace Partnership Group—consisting of 19 members that represent labor unions, employees, employers, and business associations—set out with an ambitious, but controversial, agenda that affected local employers. One of the group’s most contentious ideas was to enact a fair scheduling ordinance that would penalize employers for making last-minute changes to their employees’ schedules.
The outcry from business owners was fast and furious, prompting the group to scale its agenda down to one issue: shaping public policy on paid sick time.
Small Businesses Need Flexibility, Not Mandates
Broadly speaking, most small business owners offer some form of paid time off, according to a national NFIB survey released Jan. 21. The vast majority of small and independent businesses, however, don’t compartmentalize the benefit into vacation, sick day or family leave.
Mandating a one-size-fits-all approach to workplace benefits, particularly paid sick leave, does more harm than good for both employer and employees, said Holly Wade, NFIB’s director of research and policy analysis.
“It’ll require a lot more record keeping, which they’re not doing now, and it will place restrictions on paid time off that don’t exist now in many cases,” she said. “If you can only give your workers 10 days of paid time off and the government mandates five days of paid sick leave, then your employees have only five days left for vacation.”
Key findings from NFIB’s research on employee compensation:
- 73 percent of small employers offered paid time off (PTO) to the majority of their full-time employees. (67 percent of them offered PTO of two weeks or more per year.)
- 90 percent of small businesses that offer PTO allow workers to use personal sick days to take care of a child or relative.
- 71 percent of small employers offer flexible working hours for the majority of their full-time employees.
