City Council: Chicago workers must get sick leave
By Kevin Beese For Chronicle Media — June 27, 2016
Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th Ward) speaks before the City Council June 22 about sick leave for Chicago private-sector workers. (Photo courtesy City of Chicago)
Chicago Ald. Toni Foulkes remembers getting the chicken pox at 32 years of age.
“The doctor told me he normally gives his patients 18 days off,” said the 16th Ward alderman, now in her 50s. “(I thought) ‘How was I going to pay the rent?’ I was single with no children. I can imagine what mothers and fathers are going through that have a family to take care of.”
Remembering her past as a single mom, Foulkes said she was proud to support legislation that requires all businesses in the city of Chicago to allow employees to earn sick time. The proposal earned unanimous City Council approval last week.
City officials noted that 43 percent of private-sector workers within Chicago’s boundaries do not receive sick time. They added that the most comprehensive national survey of U.S. restaurant workers found that two-thirds of wait-staff and cooks have gone to work sick.
“How many of us want to go into a restaurant knowing their employees can’t take a day off when they are sick and thinking that person behind the grill [who] is making our sandwich has the flu?” asked Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th Ward).
The law requires that beginning July 1, 2017 all employees within the city limits earn one hour of sick time for every 40 hours worked and be allowed to carry over half of their earned sick time, up to 20 hours, to the next year. Supporters say it could affect up to 46,000 workers in the City of Chicago.
Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th Ward) said while some businesses may claim the move is just the city layering one thing after another on the private sector, the city is actually layering good public policy to help people get out of poverty.
He said allowing all workers to accumulate sick time is just leveling the playing field.
“We are just affording them the same benefits that most people in the city of Chicago enjoy, that most people wearing a shirt and tie enjoy, that they can call in sick when they are sick, that they can call in sick when their children are sick, and those that are working in (Family and Medical Leave Act-eligible) companies can take sick leave without being penalized for it,” Pawar said. “We are one of two nations in the world that doesn’t have any standards on this.
“When people and businesses say that this is anti-business or anti-capitalist, I would again push back with another point by saying that all the other countries in the world that have paid leave policies or sick leave policies seem to do just fine in today’s economy.”
Pawar said it upsets him that some have said poor people and others just being given access to sick time will be more likely the cheat the system. He said there are plenty of managers and executives who abuse sick days as well.
“Of course there are people who cheat the system. Go to Wrigley Field on any game day that starts at 1:20 and find out how many people are wearing a shirt and tie or go to the bar on St. Patrick’s Day,” he said. “There are people that cheat all the time. My point is if we design public policy around the small group of people who cheat, we’ll always fail and when you take that position in business, you will always end up in a position where you are tossing scraps to working people.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel noted that Chicago is one of the few cities that has passed sick-time legislation which covers victims of domestic violence.
He stressed that sick time is not something given to employees, but something that must be earned by employees.
“Some people want to describe it one way as anti-business,” Emanuel said. “I consider this a pro-family policy.”
He said there are a number of Chicago businesses that already have good policies in place concerning sick time. Emanuel said those companies should be held up as good corporate citizens.
The mayor said he hopes that state lawmakers soon take action to enact similar sick time rules statewide.
“It is my fervent hope that the state of Illinois catches up,” Emanuel said. “There are a lot of people who work outside of the city making less than the minimum wage [who live] here in the city of Chicago. They have families that they have to feed here in the city of Chicago. There are a lot of families who live here in the city, work in the suburbs, that will not get paid sick leave.”
He said much like when the city increased the minimum wage at all business in Chicago to $13 per hour by 2019, some will call the paid sick time rule the death of business.
“We have done right on the minimum wage. Everybody declared the end of the world as we know it,” the mayor said. “Today, you have many small businesses coming to the city of Chicago. It didn’t stop it.
“… I have been with President (Bill) Clinton when he passed the Family and Medical Leave Act when people said this was going to be horrible for business. It happened to be the era with some of the greatest growth of jobs and incomes. Helping parents who are working, good parents is good.”
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