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De Blasio Expands Paid Sick Leave & Promises To "Forge One City"
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 17, 2014
Modified Jan 17, 2014
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 17, 2014
Modified Jan 17, 2014
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NYC businesses employing five or more employees will soon be required to offer workers five paid sick days per year, assuming legislation announced today by Mayor de Blasio passes the City Council. "Our job is to recognize that in a city as great as New York it is not acceptable that so many New Yorkers are living on the edge economically when there is something we can do to ease their burden," de Blasio said at a press conference at Esmeralda's restaurant in Bushwick.
A paid sick leave bill championed by then-Councilmember Gale Brewer (she's now Manhattan Borough President) was vetoed last year by Mayor Bloomberg, who argued that it would hurt small businesses. The City Council overrode the veto and it passed anyway, but de Blasio and other progressives felt it was too watered down—it would have only immediately affected businesses with 20 or more employees, while delaying implementation until 2015 for businesses with at least 15 workers.
"Legislation that we are putting forward with the City Council will expand the paid sick leave law to cover at least a half million more New Yorkers, and we are accelerating the implementation of the existing law to this year in all cases," de Blasio said. And a subsequent press release about the bill radiates such lofty progressive idealism that it makes the Bloomberg era seem like an entirely different planet:
Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced a sweeping expansion of paid sick leave, pledging it would be the first in a series of reforms to lift up hardworking New Yorkers and forge one city where everyone rises together. The Mayor put forward new legislation that will expand the right to paid sick leave to approximately 500,000 more New Yorkers -- 200,000 of whom do not currently have paid sick days. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, joined by dozens of Council Members, promised to move quickly to bring the legislation to the Council floor and see it passed into law.
“This is going to be one city, where everyone has a shot and rises together,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “What we are putting forward today will fundamentally improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of working New Yorkers—especially families struggling just to get by. Beginning this year, getting sick will no longer mean losing a day’s pay, or potentially a job, in the city of New York. I thank Speaker Mark-Viverito, Council Members and the vast coalition that has helped bring us to this moment.”
The new City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito was at de Blasio's side during the press conference, signaling the administration's confidence that the bill will pass. If it does, it could take effect in April. Among the amendments, the expanded sick leave legislation will:
- Extend the right to paid sick leave to all workers at businesses with five or more employees, encompassing those left out of the current legislation that applies to businesses of 15 or more workers. That will cover an additional 355,000 New Yorkers - more than 200,000 of whom we know currently do not receive paid sick leave.
- Eliminate the phase-in, which would have delayed coverage to workers at businesses between 15 and 20 workers. This means 140,000 people who would have waited until mid-2015 under the existing bill will have coverage this April. Eighty-five thousand of those workers do not currently have a single paid sick day.
- Remove exemptions for the manufacturing sector, extending paid sick leave coverage to 76,000 workers, half of whom don’t currently have any paid sick days.
- Add grandparents, grandchildren and siblings to the definition of family members workers can legally care for using paid sick time.
- Eliminate the economic trigger that could have delayed implementation of paid sick leave based on certain economic benchmarks.
During the Q&A, de Blasio explained that the paid sick time would start accruing on employees' first day, and that more than three days sick time would require a doctor's note. Asked about critics' warnings that small business would skirt the law by moving workers to part time employment, de Blasio said, "The facts on the ground are what matter here. Cities and states around the country have been doing this over the past several years, and consistently the research is that it does not fundamentally change the relationship between employees and businesses."
"It’s time for our laws to live up to our values. This is a new day for New York City, and we are going to use every tool we have to make life better for working people,” said City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. “We are going to make sure that no one is thrown into crisis and insecurity just because they or a family member gets sick. This is the culmination of a movement and coalition that has put the rights and needs of families at the center of our agenda. The City Council is going to work in partnership with the Mayor to seize this moment.”
With Ben Miller
Tagged
bill de blasio
paid sick leave
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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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