CONGRESS IS CONSIDERING REQUIRING BUSINESSES TO PROVIDE PAID SICK LEAVE

(U.S. Chamber Magazine) -- USChamberMagazine.com reports that "small businesses are facing a new federal mandate of 'unprecedented scope' if a bill requiring employers to provide annual paid sick leave passes Congress and is signed into law, according to a former administration official testifying on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Victoria Lipnic, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment Standards in the Bush administration, says the bill, known as the Healthy Families Act, would hit small companies at a 'time of severe economic distress when businesses are doing everything they can to preserve jobs.'

Lipnic pointed to a February 2009 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which found that 83% of workers in the private sector have access to some form of illness leave."

According to the story, the bill would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide up to 7 days of annual paid sick leave for full-time and part-time workers to take care of themselves, family members, or anyone else whose close association with the employees is the equivalent of a family relationship. Leave would also be available for reasons related to domestic violence. Workers would earn 1 hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 56 hours per year.

See more at <http://www.uschambermagazine.com/content/090615z.htm>