Let’s take a step away from the Daly-Black race for a post, and look at my favorite ballot measure this year, Prop F.
Prop F would grant workers in San Francisco 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Even better, workers can use the time to care for family members, as well as themselves.
This will help most of the people who work non-union, low wage jobs:
People who have to choose between working with a 102 degree fever or not making rent.
Parents who face a choice of leaving their sick kid at home or losing their job.
Co-workers who end up working next to someone who’s sick, but can’t afford to take time off.
And more.
It will also be good for the folks who go to restaurants, since there won’t be a sneezing, coughing cook or waiter handling their food, since restaurant workers (particularly cooks) are hugely discouraged from calling in sick.
Prop F is a smart, reasonable approach to making a lot of people better off. Vote Yes.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Sasha,
I can hear the voilins playing softly in the background. I also love the incredibly pitiful “either / or” picture you paint about choosing between a sick child and loosing one’s job.
Before we all run off and vote “yes” on Prop F, let’s first take a look at the math.
Employers would be required to provide 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 worked. A cap of 40 hours would be placed on businesses with less than 10 employees and a cap of 72 hours for all others. Because SF has a “living wage” $1.75 ABOVE minimum wage ($7.50 as of 1/1/07), the cost to small businesses (less than 10 employees) would be $370 / employee or $3,330 / year, assuming a 9 employee business. The cost for all other businesses would be at a minimum $6,660 / year (assuming 10 employees).
If this still isn’t sinking in, then let me spell it out to you like this:
SMALL BUSINESSES ARE THE BACKBONE OF OUR ECONOMY. EVERY TIME A SMALL BUSINESS CREATES A NEW JOB, THEY EXPAND THE TAX BASE, SOMETHING SF IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF DOING.
SMALL BUSINESSES CANNOT THRIVE IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT CHOKES OFF THE ONE RESOURCE THEY NEED TO CREATE JOBS - CASH!
Paid sick days are a good thing, but should not be mandated by the government. This proposition is yet another anti-business measure that is forcing more and more businesses out of San Francisco. So spare me the tears when your job gets outsourced to India or Daly City or Emeryville.
Oh, and by the way, if this proposition gets approved, San Francisco would become the first city in the US to require employers to offer paid sick days. To date, there is no federal, state or local law requiring businesses to provide such a benefit.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Well, first of all, there’s nothing that requires employees to take sick time, so your figures are purely speculative.
Second of all, if you can’t run a business and afford to treat your employees humanely, then you might want to consider another line of work.
Third, despite your sneering derision, people do have to choose between their jobs and their kids. See, for example, this PDF.
Finally, I’ve already had one job outsourced to India this year, and let me tell you, it had nothing to do with sick pay. Try the disasterous cost of health insurance, or the inadequacy of American education.
October 20th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Trust me, if an emplyee can take paid time off, they will.
I agree that employers should treat their employees humanely, however I disagree that it’s the job of government to mandate how it should be done.
What kills me is the hypocricy that is so rampant with people like Chris Daly. Prop F is unanimously anti-small business. The following oppose the measure:
The SF Chamber of Commerce
The Haight Ashbury Improvement Association
The Marina Merchants Association
The Inner Sunset Merchants Association
The Greater Geary Boulevard Marchants Association
The SF Council of District Merchants Association
Yet despite oppostion from all these groups (a pretty good cross section of small business interests), Daly supports it.
Daly also supports Proposition G, something he calls “The Small Business Protection Act”. In his words, “small businesses employ more than half of the City’s workforce and are the linchpin of San Francisco’s economy. Proposition G helps to ensure their survival.”
So help me understand. On one hand Chris Daly supports an anti-small business proposition (F), yet he also supports a proposition he calls “the small business protection act”(G).
I honestly don’t know who is worse, Daly or the people who put up with his hypocricy.
October 20th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Um, it’s pretty clearly the government’s job to regulate thew workplace. Or do you want to go back to the times of child labor and 12-hour days (plus a half day on Saturday!)? These were government regulations that affected the workplace. And I would say they’re hard to argue with.
As far as sick time goes, I certainly have never taken all my sick time in a year. You may have different habits, but it’s patently false that “if an emplyee can take paid time off, they will.”
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:07 am
You ignored the meat of my post. What say you to the notion that Chris is a hypocrite?? Convince me that he isn’t completely contradicting himself with Prop F and Prop G?