Mandated Sick Pay

Missouri Republican legislators repealed a paid sick leave mandate that the state’s voters approved 58% - 42%. The move follows an aggressive lobbying campaign by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as other business industry groups.

According to Bill Thompson, 58, a long-time fast-food worker, “It was a literal gut punch. As an older worker, I have health issues from working on my feet, and with my hands for many years with no breaks for eight to 10 hours a day. I have done it for 38 years now, living paycheck to paycheck.”

(Sorry! No cry-baby sympathy here. Try crawling on your hands and knees for 40 years, as I did, as a self-employed flooring installer. It’s called work for a reason.)

Thompson gathered signatures for the once mandated sick pay initiative due to his personal experiences with his health, as well as to take care of his mother who suffered health issues. Following the repeal, workers and labor groups in Missouri strongly criticized the move, arguing elected officials chose to side with “greed” over workers.

They would be wrong. It has nothing to do with greed. It has to do with businesses’ ability to stay afloat. Every employer mandate is an added expense that does one of three things. 1) It causes the company to raise prices adding to inflation, 2) it causes the company to cut workers in favor of automation adding to unemployment, or 3) a combination of the two. Companies only have so much money to work with. Every dollar of benefits one receives is one less dollar available for future raises – a long-term effect most workers fail to understand.

If Mr. Thompson wanted sick pay, maybe he should have tried to improve on his work value by seeking a more highly-skilled, better paying job, with better benefits, rather than living, as he stated, “paycheck-to-paycheck”, in the fast-food industry for 30 years. Surviving week-to-week is what happens when socialism and mandates take over. For many people, guaranteed “getting by” kills the incentive for self-improvement.

I state it time and time again. If one doesn’t like the agreement they have with their employer… QUIT! Change jobs! Better yet, start your own business and be your own boss. Oh, wait! Then you’ll have hundreds of bosses. They’re called customers. Those people one needs to satisfy to avoid shutting down – something that 80% of startups do within the first five years.

Mandates are nothing but government overreach. People love to talk freedom, then often vote against it. True freedom requires employers and employees to work out their own work agreement to the benefit of both. Any interference by government (other than basic safety requirements) is a violation of freedom in favor of a dictatorship. Unfortunately, the world runs on hypocrisy.