History of leave

With the passing of mandatory paid sick leave by the Maryland legislature in January 2018 the idea for this post began as a look at the history of sick leave in the American workplace. Research revealed the reason why there are paid leave advocates. Leave from work, whether for sick or personal, is a relatively new concept as it applies to the American workplace. Still, this is probably a good topic for a little background.

During the agriculture phase of the America people worked as the farm dictated. Once the Industrial Revolution arrived factories sprung up with no shortage of workers. People lined up waiting for jobs. Employers could set wages and hours are they saw fit. There was little to no regulation. People worked six days a week for pennies an hour in deplorable conditions. If you missed work you weren’t paid or lost your job. These conditions continued well into the 20^th century until a president floated a new concept.

Starting a conversation

The idea of employee paid leave in the United States started with President William Taft in 1910 who thought that workers should have three months of vacation per year. Congress never bought into it but the conversation was started. Sixteen years later the work schedule began to change. The Ford Motor Company was one of the first, if not the biggest, company to offer employees a five day, 40 hour workweek. The policy went into effect in may 1926 at the urging of Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, who thought every man needed more than one a day a week for rest.

By the 1930’s, countries around the world had begun adopting paid time off for employees. The U.S. Department of Labor took up the fight again creating the Committee of Vacations with Pay to study why the U.S was so far behind the rest of the industrialized world. Nothing came from this committee.

It would be sixty some years later before the U.S government made significant changes. In 1993 the passage of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) mandated twelve weeks of unpaid time off for workers to attend to their own or a family members medical issues. Leave from work agreements were, and still are, between employer and employee with no mandate for payment. While FMLA provided for leave without retribution from employers, the leave was still unpaid.  

There is not a statutory requirement for paid vacation in the U.S. Individual employers decide on what leave and type of leave to offer employees. Employer’s decisions on leave run the spectrum. A few companies are experimenting with unlimited leave while the majority offer some sort of paid time off. There are still small percentages that offer no leave.

Regarding statutory paid sick leave, currently nine U.S. states mandate it (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington). Expect that number to grow in the coming years.

Please share this and any post. See the blog archive for other posts about employee benefits.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em? August 2017

Employee implants July 2017

What's in your wallet? May 2017

Workplace monitoring May 2016

Overtime history May 2016

437th sine die

The 437th session of the Maryland General assembly came to a close on Monday, April 10, 2017. Here are the business related laws that were passed.

Paid sick leave: Businesses with 15 or more employees would be required to provide five days of paid sick leave.

Manufacturing: Tax incentives will be offered to companies that add manufacturing jobs and provide related training for skilled workers.

Health care: A commission was formed to monitor federal actions that affect Maryland health care.

Governor Hogan has said that he will veto the paid sick leave bill. Governor Hogan proposed his own paid sick leave bill that set the employee mark for businesses at 50 and included tax incentives for smaller companies that offered paid sick leave. If the bill is vetoed, the legislature does have the necessary votes to override the veto. However, lawmakers will not have an opportunity to override the veto until next year’s legislative session, delaying the implementation of the bill until 2018.

437th session has more business laws January 2017

437th session has more business laws

The 437^th session of the Maryland General assembly convened on January 11, 2017 and will run for the next ninety days. Before the session started two news stories came out in December that will affect Maryland business and, as always, these things tend to hit small business owners in some way.

Governor Hogan, who has been a strong proponent for Maryland business, big and small, announced on December 7, 2016, that he plans on proposing mandatory paid sick leave in his legislative package. Under his proposal, businesses that have at least 50 employees will be required to offer paid sick leave totaling at least 40 hours a year and the ability for employees to roll over a maximum of 40 hours each year. Part-time employees would be covered after a minimum of 30 working hours and seasonal industries would be exempt if workers are employed for less than 120 days in a 12-month period. Small businesses, with less than 50 employees, who offer paid sick leave, would be eligible for tax relief.

During the announcement Governor Hogan said, “While all of us agree that more workers need sick leave in Maryland, it would be irresponsible to put a law on the books that unfairly penalizes our state’s job creators. It is clear that, in order to move forward, we must strike a balance between the needs of Maryland’s employees while not hurting our small businesses and continuing to foster a more business-friendly climate in our state.”

On December 20, 2016, news broke that five retailers who do business in Maryland agreed to end “on call” scheduling. This type of scheduling is not what one would commonly define as being available to be recalled to work. No, this type of on call means that employees must call their employer an hour before a scheduled shift to find out if they are required to work that day. If not, they are not paid for that shift, even though they may have been scheduled or planning to work.  

Aeropostale, Carter's, Disney, PacSun and Zumiez stopped the practice after an inquiry from attorneys general in Maryland, New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. In part, the inquiry stated that unpredictable schedules make it difficult for retail employees to work a second job, pursue an education, or care for family members.

The Maryland gubernatorial election is in 2018 and you can expect the political posturing to start this legislative session. Hang on, because this ride is always bumpy. We’ll see what comes out in April.

Maryland-Paid Sick Leave Act

The 2016 Maryland General Assembly did not enact a new workplace law regarding sick leave.  The Maryland Paid Sick leave Act returned to the General Assembly this year and again failed. 

The act would have required businesses with fifteen or more employees to allow workers to earn one hour of sick leave for every thirty hours worked, up to a minimum of five days per year. Businesses with less than fifteen employees would have been required to offer the same amount of unpaid sick leave.

Four states currently have laws requiring paid sick leave for employees-Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

We’re writing about an act that didn’t happen because this issue was addressed in the 2015 session as well. Be sure that it will be back in 2017.

A proposal by the Governor to reduce business filing fees was also defeated.