Small businesses say a proposal to force every company in the city to provide paid sick days to employees would cripple them, especially during a fiscal downturn.
“You will hear many individual accounts of how this bill will be the final nail in the coffin,” said Robert Bookman, a city lawyer for the New York State Restaurant Association.
“In this economy, we simply cannot pass this new cost of doing business to the consumer, and the money to pay for it has to come from somewhere.”
The bill, which is likely to have a second council hearing before a vote, has the support of a veto-proof majority of council members.
“We are told from the president and the mayor down, if you’re sick, stay home. And for many people that is not possible if they’re going to lose pay and could lose their job,” Councilwoman and bill sponsor Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) said. “We could be the city that people look to in terms of what we are doing to support our workers.”
Cost estimates for the bill vary widely.
The five borough Chambers of Commerce, which oppose the measure, predicted it would cost all businesses in the city a total annual tab of $8.8 billion.
The bill requires businesses with 10 or more employees to offer nine paid sick days for full-time workers and companies with fewer than 10 to provide five days. The number of days for part-time workers would vary based on the number of weekly hours they put in.
Companies that give vacation days can count that toward the sick-pay total.
The labor-backed Working Families Party, which supports the bill, estimates 1.3 million city employees have no paid sick days.
Mayor Bloomberg wavered on the proposal.
“Everybody would love to be able to have paid sick leave, and at the same time, it’s true that a lot of small businesses probably can’t afford it,” he said. “We’re going to have to find some balance, and so we’ll work with the City Council to find that.”