San Antonio passes paid sick leave ordinance

originally posted by: TinySickTears
a reply to: BlueJacket

ok.
thats great and all
it would still be nice to have sick time.

Then go work for a company that offers it. Jesus. When people are beating down the doors of employers that respect their employees, other companies have to follow along or die off. I'm fortunate enough to be in that position, but I've had to leave behind a better paying job in that process. It all just depends on the level of sacrifice. There are people i work with that have relocated from across the US to be in this company. What are people willing to give up to work for companies that treat their employees like humans and not automatons.

originally posted by: LordAhriman

originally posted by: rollanotheronestay happily married and work for a great company.

You've got this all figured out! Why didn't anyone else think of that?

Look, everyone holds their own keys to their success and future. How they choose to apply this is up to them. I never said I had it all figured out, just what worked for me.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
Dang now I have consider I don't have it too bad. The company I currently work for pays out a week of sick time every year with accumulations up to 170 hours. I was getting upset that if you are a responsible person who shows up for work, after 170 hours are accumulated, you are losing the money.

I guess I should be grateful to even get the time. But then again, is our wage being suppressed due to this benefit? If a company figures this into their total compensation, I would take it on the front end and just get paid more. It is like those annual statements sent out that shows what you actually 'cost' the company. It is usually 2-3x's your salary with all of the benefits. When I asked if I could take responsibility for my life decisions and trade some of those benefits for more take home pay, they just laughed at me. If they send out the statement of what it costs to keep me employed, why should they care as to how it is distributed?

That would be funny to claim a contractor status, they should be able to pay that total sum including benefits without batting an eye, it would be less paperwork for them. But that would give up the lie in startling fashion.

That is actually one of the benefits of being a contractor. You can actually make more money since the employer/client isn't responsible for all the ancillary sh*t that comes with employing you. As a result, they can actually pay you more.
The downside is you have to be responsible and manage your own taxes, healthcare, etc.

I don't get the US obsessions with lack of paid vacation and sick days. It's a false economy for company's.

Stressed and sick employees are unproductive employers.

There is a reason that in most civilised country's the minimum vacation is set at 28 days, it's not because our governments are soft and want what's best for the people, it's the scientifically proven minimum amount of leave needed before productivity and health in the work places drops off sharply. Most western country's set the 28 days purely to INCREASE productivity and the economy's.

This warped work culture in the USA of demonizing vacations and sick days is hurting your economy not helping it.

Even obsessive work cultures like Japan and South Korea have woken up to the fact that working people to death is not good for company's and the economy's.

To be honest, the government should not have to get involved, businesses should be smart enough to know this.
But for some reason many company's in the USA seem #ing stupid and seem to keep their heads in the sand.

As the saying goes, work smarter not harder.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: CB328


My feet hurt sometimes at work.

I think my employer should be forced to give me foot massages.

And don't skimp on the cheap lotions! I want Tea Tree Oils dammit!

You said on another post your a director.


Do you want a employee dragging themselves into work with the norovirus, puking everywhere then giving everyone else in your department that virus so that 75% of your department are then off ill for a week?

I have worked in a place that happens and it sucked for the few of us and the manager that did not get sick.
Would of been better for the department if that sick employee had stayed home!

I'm not sure if this affects contractors...as a contractor you do not actually work for the company.

originally posted by: DieGloke

I have worked in a place that happens and it sucked for the few of us and the manager that did not get sick.
Would of been better for the department if that sick employee had stayed home!

We encourage people to stay home if sick. We also give about 25 days a year of sick/vacation time too. We allow people to carry over 200 hours each year too.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: DieGloke

I have worked in a place that happens and it sucked for the few of us and the manager that did not get sick.
Would of been better for the department if that sick employee had stayed home!

We encourage people to stay home if sick. We also give about 25 days a year of sick/vacation time too. We allow people to carry over 200 hours each year too.

Sounds like a sensible company.

End of the day it's about productivity.

originally posted by: DieGloke

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: DieGloke

I have worked in a place that happens and it sucked for the few of us and the manager that did not get sick.
Would of been better for the department if that sick employee had stayed home!

We encourage people to stay home if sick. We also give about 25 days a year of sick/vacation time too. We allow people to carry over 200 hours each year too.

Sounds like a sensible company.

End of the day it's about productivity.

Yeah, not ALL U.S. companies are how you paint them out to be. Even the contract workers at my place of employment get benefits.
You might want to edit your post above. Not all American workers are work obsessed. Not all American companies are tyrannical.

The levels of illiteracy in this thread are amazing. Let me help everyone:

Contract workers are NOT employees and do NOT receive the same benefits as an employee. These are legal terms that have meaning.

The OP stated he/she is a contract worker. There isn’t anything else to say about this topic. We’re not a communist country where everyone is assigned a job. We’re all free to pick and choose what we want to do. So if you don’t like the job then get a different one.

originally posted by: CB328

that’s $92,500.00 dollars

Yes but you're already paying it. In reality that cost would be how much work didn't get done from someone being sick for a day. Assuming the other workers pick up some of the slack, like in my job, then you're not paying nearly that much.

Your math doesn’t work. I would be paying one to be off and another to do the job.

originally posted by: Nickn3

originally posted by: CB328

that’s $92,500.00 dollars

Yes but you're already paying it. In reality that cost would be how much work didn't get done from someone being sick for a day. Assuming the other workers pick up some of the slack, like in my job, then you're not paying nearly that much.

Your math doesn’t work. I would be paying one to be off and another to do the job.

Problem is with a infectious diseases.

Someone drags themselves in with norovirus or flu infects the entire department then nothing gets done for 2 weeks.
It better for the team and company if that sick person just stayed at home and got paid rather than come in and # everything up.

I was a supervisor and buisness owner once and trust me a bout of flu or norovirus going around your staff sucks.

Sick should mean sick though, not just the sniffles or a hangover. I always took a very dim view of employees abusing sick days.

a reply to: Nickn3

You can just subtract 6 days from P.T.0. like every other company, and your employees can use their sick days at leisure.

a reply to: CB328
Sick days a basic human right?
Ummm how about no...
People will just take advantage of this one way or another. Love how liberals don't get the trade of labor for currency.

How about manning up and working when you have the sniffles? I get it if you have a debilitating disease but this isn't what is being proposed here. You all strike me as a bunch of cry babies right now....

Next people will want payed days off to visit the DMV and crap.

originally posted by: Nickn3
I am torn on sick leave. I would love to have it, but.

I have about 65 employees right now, I run a construction company. I have no doubt most of the guys would take a day to go fishing and we would have an epidemic the opening day of deer season. The next thing is who would pay for it? Say the employees is accruing 1/2 a day a month. That six a a year times 65 = 370 sick days. At $250 bucks a pop on average, that’s $92,500.00 dollars. Quite a hit to the bottom line. My benefit package is currently about $6.75 per hour. For educational expense, insurance, vacation, 401K, holiday pay, clothing allotment, ect.

If you were one of my Customers would you mind another modest increase on your invoice to pay for my employees sick days?

I work in construction as well and the margins for smaller business's (in construction it's still a pretty big operation with a lot of $$ if you're not a single sub working for yourself) are just not enough to sustain people being paid to not work

the government regulations and highly competitive market are already driving the margins down to near nothing sometimes god forbid 1 thing goes wrong and you know how that goes

originally posted by: Nickn3
I am torn on sick leave. I would love to have it, but.

I have about 65 employees right now, I run a construction company. I have no doubt most of the guys would take a day to go fishing and we would have an epidemic the opening day of deer season. The next thing is who would pay for it? Say the employees is accruing 1/2 a day a month. That six a a year times 65 = 370 sick days. At $250 bucks a pop on average, that’s $92,500.00 dollars. Quite a hit to the bottom line. My benefit package is currently about $6.75 per hour. For educational expense, insurance, vacation, 401K, holiday pay, clothing allotment, ect.

If you were one of my Customers would you mind another modest increase on your invoice to pay for my employees sick days?

How much though do you lose if some idiot drags themself in with flu or norovirus and infects the whole staff?

How much do you lose if a sick person drags themselfs in and ends up stressed to hell with a drop in productivity.

As someone who was in mananagment myself I can say company's can lose a # ton of money by not having sick days.

Skimping on vacation and sick days is a false economy. It's not all about the number of hours you can get out your employers but how much work you can squeeze out of those hours. Tired, stressed and sick employees are very unproductive and make mistakes.

Now as someone from a country where sick days are pretty standard I can tell you we have come up with some effective methods for countering fake sick days. The most simplest is asking for a doctor's note. But there are a few formulas like the Bradford formula that can catch out liars pretty effectively.

a reply to: DieGloke

a lot of smaller companies just can't afford it plain and simple

this will allow larger companies to dominate markets that pass this legislation and create a new barrier of entry to smaller guys wanting to be a little successful

the small business climate in this country is already almost nearly impossible rather than probable we need to move in the opposite direction

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: DieGloke

a lot of smaller companies just can't afford it plain and simple

this will allow larger companies to dominate markets that pass this legislation and create a new barrier of entry to smaller guys wanting to be a little successful

the small business climate in this country is already almost nearly impossible rather than probable we need to move in the opposite direction

It's not about being big or small.


A small buisness that works it's employees into the ground and I'll health will lose money.

It's called false economy. You think your saving money but in reality your actually losing them.

You need to think of your employers like expensive high value tools and machines.

With machines only a idiot skimps on servicing and general maintenance.


It's the same with human workers. Think of vacation as servicing and sick days as maintenance.

Fact is a small buisness that keeps it's workers working 261 days a year is going to produce less than a small buisness that lets it's employers work 231 days a year. Stressed and Ill workers are as useless and unreliable as badly maintained, broken machines.

a reply to: DieGloke

it is about the size of the business and the profit margins, smaller business's cannot sustain a policy like this because the margins are not there to afford it

sub contractor's with 1 crew and 2-4 guys who do small commercial and residential jobs in my industry already cannot fully comply with all of the regulation and taxes and survive

you think a small carpentry company can seriously afford to pay their guys vacation and sick days and buy them all medical insurance and all that?

no a lot of small business's already cannot comply with it all the barrier to entry is already high

so you have a small construction business (sub contractor) who would normally be able to pull in 70-120k let's say rough estimate now you add in all of this regulation and guess what he's making? 40-50k?

guess what all his guys are making now they have all these benefits, $10 an hour. you see how this drives down wages??

prior to the tax and regulation burden they could have been making probably 15-20 an hour depending on skill level

a reply to: toysforadults

Would the same company refuse to maintain vital machinery?

It's the same concept.

It's not about being kind or careing it's about maximising the productivity of your workers so you get more out if them.

Vacation and sick days are not expenses, they are investments. You get a bigger return from them than the expense you pay out initially. For every day vacation you get more days back in extra work done.

And with the sick days I already explained. Sure it hurts a company if a single employee goes off sick, but if a employee drags themselves into work with flu or norovirus and infects everyone.......well I worked for a big multi national Corp when that happend and we lost £2 million of two weeks because all projects where put on hold or scraped as no one was in work as we where all head in a toilets vomiting and #ting ourselves.......think what that would do to a small buisness? Ouch......rather pay the sick pay!