Could lead to patchwork of different labor laws around PA
Today the NFIB Small Business Legal Center filed an amicus brief in Building Owners and Managers Association of Pittsburgh v. City of Pittsburgh, wherein the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is set to decide whether Pennsylvania state law permits municipal paid sick leave ordinances.
The NFIB Small Business Legal Center maintains that state law prohibits paid sick leave enactments, as well as any other form of local regulation imposing burdens on employers. Karen Harned, executive director of the Small Business Legal Center, said, “Small business employers are already swimming in regulatory red-tape at the state and federal level, so there are compelling reasons for the General Assembly’s decision to preempt this sort of municipal action. Running a business is complicated enough without opening the door to municipalities piling-on and balkanizing employment standards.”
The Legal Center’s brief argues that if Pittsburgh’s paid sick leave ordinance is permitted, other municipalities would follow suit—but with inconsistent rules from one community to the next. Harned said, “It’s vital to maintain uniform employment standards throughout the Commonwealth, otherwise small business employers are left in the lurch when trying to figure out how to comply with inconsistent local mandates. If you have a mobile workforce, say a plumbing company, it gets very complicated if Pittsburgh and surrounding communities impose different rules.”
The Legal Center warns that allowing balkanization of employment standards at the local level results in economic dislocation, which may have statewide impacts. Harned said, “In those states permitting this patch-work approach to employment law, businesses have little choice but to conform to standards imposed by dominant regional cities—which means that municipal regulation in cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia would anomalously affect other communities. And the reality is that there are real statewide impacts because balkanized regulatory standards affect the overall business climate in Pennsylvania—and that’s to say nothing of the fiscal impact to the state budget when municipal regulation leads to increased unemployment.”
The City of Pittsburgh maintains that it is permitted to impose paid sick leave requirements on employers under a general power to regulate health issues; however, the Legal Center argues that such an open-ended ruling would invite other burdensome impositions. Harned said, “It’s foreseeable that if Pittsburgh wins here, other cities will not only pile-on with their own paid sick leave mandates but will inevitably seek to invoke public health concerns to justify minimum wage hikes and other progressive labor reforms.”
Other groups joining with the NFIB Small Business Legal Center in this filing include the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association.
