If a committee was assigned the task of drafting a bill that would do the most damage to Massachusetts small business they could not have come up with anything more effective than Question 4 on the November ballot, which mandates that all businesses with 11 or more employees provide 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. And this includes part time and temporary employees! Make no mistake about it, this is a small business killer. The results will be fewer business start-ups in Massachusetts, which already has unemployment above the national average, more business closings, employers cutting back on the number of employees to avoid the mandate, people being paid “under the table”, and fewer job opportunities for high school and college students. This also means less income tax and sales tax being paid, less money going into the social security, unemployment, and workmen’s compensation funds, and less money in local economies. Small businesses will be dealt a triple blow: the increased cost of doing business, another layer on an already burdensome bookkeeping load, and, perhaps worst of all, increased absenteeism. If paid sick time is available people will take it; some for legitimate reasons and some just for time off with pay. When this happens the employer must pay someone else to fill in or fill in him or herself. When considering how to vote on this question, ask yourself if you would want to own a small business and have to deal with this mandate. We hear all the time that ” small business is the backbone of our economy” but rarely is anything done to help small business and the burdens keep piling on. When will it end?
