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NYC Now Largest City In America Requiring Paid Sick Leave
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 27, 2013
Modified Jun 27, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 27, 2013
Modified Jun 27, 2013
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During a session that dragged on into the small hours of the morning today, the City Council overwhelmingly voted to override Mayor Bloomberg's veto of a bill requiring employers to offer paid sick leave. In a 47-to-4 vote, the Council canceled out the mayor's veto to pass the bill, which forces city businesses with at least 20 employees to offer five paid sick days starting in April 2014. In 2015, businesses with at least 15 workers must offer paid sick leave. The law will eventually impact an estimated 1 million New Yorkers.
The bill, championed for years by Councilwoman Gale Brewer and finally brought to a vote in March by aspiring mayor Christine Quinn, also requires all smaller businesses to at least offer five unpaid sick days a year. "Workers were almost crying today,” Brewer said this morning. “They will now be the beneficiaries of what all workers should have, which is the ability to stay home if you’re sick.”
Mayor Bloomberg has not said whether his administration will sue to block the law, as he did last year when the City Council overrode his veto on living wage legislation. In March, Bloomberg said, "I personally think it’s best left to the employer, and you can take a job or not take a job depending on the salary and benefits that the employer offers." Exactly; nobody's forcing anyone to take a low-paying job with no paid sick time—you can choose to take it, or you can choose to be a hobo warming your frostbitten fingers by a trash can fire. America!
One 2010 study paid for by pro-business groups say businesses will lose an estimated $789 million in complying with the law. Another study released in 2011 found that one in eight restaurant workers has come to work at least twice in the past year while suffering from vomiting or diarrhea. So there's that.
In passing the bill, NYC joins Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and the state of Connecticut in requiring the sick leave benefits for at least some workers, the AP reports.
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City Council
paid sick leave
sick leave
sick time
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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