SMALL BUSINESS TAKING NEW STUDY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT
TRENTON (April 1, 2015): Today the National Federation of
Independent Business (NFIB) as well as other premier business groups in the
state are calling into question the results of a study released regarding the
impact that mandatory paid sick leave has had on businesses in Jersey City.
Just 12 months after the Council passed an ordinance requiring all employers
within the city limits to provide their workers with sick time, today’s results
claim to show little to no bearing on the bottom line of those businesses.
However, additional studies show that, more importantly, the long term
consequences of paid sick leave will be detrimental to small businesses and
employees alike.
“The NFIB Research Center conducted a study when paid sick
leave laws began popping up in New Jersey and the results were staggering.
25,000 NJ jobs could be lost by 2023 thanks to the compensation costs
associated with paying more workers taking paid leave, the loss of production
due to more workers taking off, and new paperwork and recordkeeping costs
incurred simply to comply with a paid leave mandate” Said Laurie Ehlbeck,
NFIB NJ State Director, “All of these factors, including the long term
influence mandatory paid leave will have must be taken into account when
reading a study that has barely scratched the surface of the issues that
mandatory paid leave is causing small business in New Jersey.”
“The bottom line is that we knew from the beginning that the
paid sick leave impact would be a longer term challenge. The law simply has not
been in existence long enough for any study to capture the significant
influence that mandating paid leave has on small business owners and their
future hiring practices.” Said John Holub, President of New Jersey Retail
Association.
A study recently conducted by the Freedom Foundation cited
one of the fundamental problems with most paid sick leave studies is that they
are conducted too early to capture a realistic snapshot of the persisting
issues associated with mandating leave. Marilou Halvorsen, President
of New Jersey Restaurant & Hospitality Association noted that “The
Freedom Foundation noted in their study that reaching accurate conclusions
about the effect policies like these have requires digging deeper than
executive summaries and the simplified slogans of labor activists.”
According to Michael Egenton, Senior Vice President of
the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce: “As much as supporters of this bill
would like to take a victory lap, we will not dismiss the results of this study
as a win for the supporters because there simply has not been enough time for
business owners to feel the long term magnitude of this harmful mandate.”
