Study: Paid sick days may cost 75,000 jobs Business group eyes ballot issue

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By Marc Kovac

Record-Courier capital bureau

COLUMBUS -- Requiring employers to provide paid sick time for workers will cost Ohio tens of thousands of jobs and billions in annual sales, according to a study released by a business group Tuesday.

"Without question, this is a jobs killer," Roger Geiger, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business in Ohio, said of the ballot issue, which the group said would lead to 75,000 job cuts, $1.17 billion in additional costs to employers and $9.4 billion in lost sales.

He added, "It is a very, very costly proposal in terms of economic loss, cost of business. This is going to have a dramatic impact in economic terms for Ohioans, and we, as consumers will pay a huge, huge price as a result."

The study results were released during a press conference at the Statehouse. NFIB, among the vocal opponents of the Paid Sick Days Campaign, conducted the research in house, via its NFIB Research Foundation.

And that calls into question the results, said Dale Butland, spokesman for the Paid Sick Days Campaign, the proponents of the issue.

Butland said copies of the study he reviewed did not include specifics about the modeling that went into the results, and the findings contradicted other independent research on the issue -- and in some cases, itself.

"The study says paid sick days would (make up) just 1 percent of total employee compensation," he said, "but would cost small firms 30 percent of their sales. That's difficult to understand."

The Ohio Paid Sick Days campaign initiated legislation, called the Ohio Healthy Families Act, that would require businesses with 25 or more workers to allow full-time employees to earn seven paid sick days per year.

Earlier this month, backers delivered more than 240,000 signatures to the Secretary of State, a required step to place the matter before voters during the general election.

County boards of election must verify the names, with about half of the total required for the issue to reach the ballot.

According to proponents, 2.2 million Ohio workers are not able to take paid sick days, exposing their co-workers and the public to potential illnesses. Some 3.5 million can't take paid days to care for family members who are sick or who need physician care.

But opponents, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, have called the measure an "anti-job creation proposal" that would burden employers with additional regulations and mandates, increase their costs and restrict companies' flexibility in their employee benefit plans.