The mayors of Franklin Lakes & Wyckoff recently joined NJ’s Governor during a speech in Teaneck where Christie was seeking to build momentum for an end to “sick day payouts”
Sick day payouts allow an employee to accrue unused sick days and cash them in at retirement. For some municipalities, facing a large number of retirements, this has resulted in them having to borrow money. Other municipalities, such as Wyckoff, have independently sought to end the practice in their contract negotiations.
The problem is not isolated to New Jersey, and has been the subject of heated public debate since the 1990s. In 2005, Acting Governor Codey created a task force that recommended all government employees, at every level of government, have their sick day payouts capped at $15,000.
This is similar to Democratic counter offer to Christie’s proposal to end the payouts completely. When this proposal resurfaced in the spring of 2011, Christie vetoed it in his pursuit to end the payouts completely. The governor’s proposal would allow employees to cash in any unused sick days that have been ‘banked’, but would prevent any further accrual of sick days. New employees would either ‘use or lose’ their sick days.
Opponents to the Christie plan argue that the Democratic plan limits sick days to a minimal amount, and the concept of ‘use them or lose them’ would result in workers calling in sick more often. They suggest this would have a significant impact on school systems where substitute teachers would be a necessity and any financial gains would be loss.
Supporters argue that private sector employees enjoy no such benefit, and professionalism should dictate if an employee needs to call in sick or not.
The debate on ending sick day payouts illuminates a disconnect between treatment of public and private sector workers. While public employees across the nation benefit from the accrual of sick days that can be cashed out, private sector workers have no right to any paid sick days. The benefit is offered by choice, but 11 states in the nation have proposed bills that would provide for mandatory sick day allowances to private sector employees.
The paid sick days campaign in 11 states does not involve cashing out sick days, but being paid for a sick day. An estimated 40 million American workers do not have a single paid sick day.
Supporters of the proposed bills base their argument on research indicating that many workers without paid sick days end up spreading viruses – and as a result have a greater negative impact on the economy. Scenarios often refer to workers in lower-wage industries, including restaurants and retail, where interaction with the general public or food is intrinsic to the job.
In June of 2011, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to mandate paid sick leave for hundreds of thousands of service workers. The Connecticut bill covers only service-workers who earn an hourly wage and work for a company with 50 or more employees -an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 workers statewide. The majority of positions are those of waiters, cashiers, fast-food cooks, hair stylists and security guards.