NYC Public Advocate Wants Mandatory Paid Sick Leave

People shouldn't have to manage their own problems!

As the flu epidemic pounds the Tri-State Area, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is calling for the immediate passage of paid sick leave legislation that is now stalled in the City Council.

Many working parents have to choose whether to go to work or stay home and lose a day's pay when a when a child gets sick.

"I've had to make that hard decision of what am I going to do?" said Annette Scott.

Comments

[Sevo]

Yes, of course. The money to pay for that will be provided by the business owners who are making too much now.

[Scarecrow Repair]

The usual rationale for mandating sick pay is that society benefits when people don't go to work and spread their germs around. I would have more respect for that argument if the alarmists wanted to pay for that time off with taxes paid by society in general. Accountability and responsibility go hand-in-hand. If society benefits from forcing employers to do something, then society ought to pay for that benefit. Of course that would be done by the usual one-size-fits-all mandate, with no recognition that some people will call in sick to go to the beach or sleep late from a hangover, and it wouldn't recognize that bakery or restaurant employees have more priority for limited funds than general office workers. Would it require those claiming sickness to stay indoors and pay for doctor's house calls?

Bah. I hate statists of every stripe. Just butt out and go away.

[Calvin Coolidge]

"I've had to make that hard decision of what am I going to do?"

Don't worry. That is what Government is for. They will make the decisions for you.

How much of the Progressive's agenda is based on the idea that people should never have to actually make choices or confront tradeoffs? "Oh, horrors! Do you know that some senior citizens need to decide how to budget their money, how much to spend on food versus rent versus prescriptions versus the slot machines?".

They all sound like arrested adolescents who are still in shock that Government doesn't just take over where your parents leave off by managing your life so you can focus solely on friends and toys.