From Del. Mary Ann Lisanti:
Dear Friends,
As many of you know, the Maryland General Assembly has convened in Annapolis for its 438th Legislative Session. I am now entering my 4th year serving the people of Harford County in this historic body, and I remain energized and hopeful that the Legislature can work together for all the citizens of Maryland. This is the first of my legislative updates to keep you informed of issues we will be addressing over the next 90 days.
The first week back to Annapolis was highlighted with several traditional acts and talk of bi-partisanship, let’s hope we can keep that spirit alive thought the coming weeks. One of the first priority bills taken up in the House and Senate was on HB 1, the Healthy Working Families Act, that was passed last year with overwhelming support of most Marylanders but vetoed by Governor Hogan. Both the House and Senate voted to override the veto. I want to take the time to explain this historic bill to you and let you know why I voted to support it.
HB 1 – Healthy Working Families Earned Paid Sick and Safe Leave
The Maryland Health Working Families Act is commonsense legislation that requires all employers in Maryland with 15 or more employees to allow their employees to earn paid sick leave creating a healthier working environment and a work/ life balance for Maryland’s families. Now more than 700,000 hard-working Marylanders and 52,000 Harford County residents will no longer need to choose between going to work sick and possibly infecting co-workers, clients or customers and forgoing a paycheck or risk being fired.
I have the privilege serve on the House Economic Matters Committee where the bill was assigned and hearings were held. I want you to know, that I went to great effort to help negotiate amendments to the original bill to lessen any unnecessary hardship on the business community. I listened intently to hours of testimony and worked with numerous businesses and industry leaders who testified to help address as many concerns as possible to make this legislation easy to understand and implement.
During my own deliberation, I asked my constituents to contact me and share their opinion of HB1. Surprisingly, I received over 300 personal calls, 128 letters and countless emails from my district all in support of this legislation.
Additionally, religious leaders and clergy members from Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church in Aberdeen, United Church of Christ in Churchville and Abingdon, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Jarrettsville, Ames United Methodist Church in Bel Air and several Catholic Churches in Harford County all contacted me to express their support. Conversely, I received one email of opposition and a copy of a letter sent to the Economic Matters Committee from the Harford County Board of Education. HCPS citied their concerns in providing sick and safe leave to seasonal and part time employees resulting in a financial burden on the school system. I made sure that their concerns were addressed in the final version of the bill, as those employees are exempt from the legislation.
The bill will become effective in 30 days, therefore here are a few things you should know:
1. The bill applies only to businesses with 15 or more employees.
2. Employees earn 1 hour of paid sick and safe leave for every 30 hours worked up to 5 days or (40 hours) per year. Workers can use up to 8 days of leave annually and carry over up to 4 days per year.
3. If a business with 15 or more employees already has a paid sick leave plan that allows an employee to earn at least 1 hour of leave for every 30 hours worked up to a total of 40 hours per year, they will need to make no changes to their sick leave policy.
4. Businesses are not required to pay workers for unused leave.
5. The bill does not apply to workers under the age of 18 who work part-time less than 12 hours per week.
6. Seasonal employees are exempt from the bill.
7. New employees must wait at least 106 days before using any of their earned sick leave.
8. Employees can use their leave: (1) to care for or treat mental or physical illness, injury or condition of the employee or family member; (2) preventative medical care; (3) maternity or paternity leave; (4) circumstances related to domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking of the employee or a family member.
I have concluded that at its core, HB1 responds to the simple reality that everybody gets sick. Teachers, waitresses, and even our Governor unfortunately have succumbed to illness requiring a day or in his case much more time off from work. HB 1 ensures that all Maryland workers are treated fairly under the law regarding sick leave, and protects employees from fear of retribution by an employer for taking a day off to care for themselves, a child or aging parent.
Economists estimate that passage of HB 1 will save Maryland businesses 132 million dollars annually by reduced turnover. Employees with earned sick leave will more likely not go to work sick and infect others and drive up the continuing high cost of healthcare. Employees with earned sick leave will not delay seeking needed medical care leading which prolongs illness and often leads to costly emergency room visits and increased insurance premiums. As an added advance, the new tax legislation passed by Congress provides tax relief to businesses therefore any anticipated implementation cost should be negligible. To learn more about this bill, please click here to view the official text: http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2017RS/bills/hb/hb0001e.pdf.
I am proud to have stood up for the hard working men and women of Maryland by supporting this bill and feel we have gotten off to a great start for this legislative session.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann
Delegate Lisanti you are an idiot. If I own a business with 16-20 employees that is still a small business. Yet you want to force me to provide sick leave. More government intervention in private business. Oh wait you are a democrat that is your job.
I believe you are the idiot. Your employees are going be sick. Many employees are forced to come to work sick because cheapscate owners like you provide very few vacation days. You are basically forcing your employees to choose between being sick or taking an earned and well deserved vacation.
If it was up to you, people like you would provide zero benefits to employees. Allow me enlighten you to the fact that your employees are going to come to work sick, they will not be productive and they will infect the rest of your staff, so you are paying the cost regardless.
I would assume that people like you would force your employees to take unpaid leave for the death of a parent or the birth of a child so they could get their crappy one week paid vacation.
If it wasnt for cheapscate business owners like you, this legislation would have never needed to be written.
Actually David, Lisanti is an idiot, or at least she’s an economic illiterate, as is typical of most leftists.
Let’s look at the previous example. A small business with 16 employees. Let’s make an assumption that each is earning $15 an hour and working full time. That doesn’t include the other costs such as his share of Social security, overhead, business insurance, unemployment insurance etc. That ends up taking the overall cost per hour per employee to about $20 an hour.
Paid time off for sick days or vacation is a great benefit. However, it’s a benefit, not a mandate. It’s done when and if the company is strong enough to absorb the cost and the cost of lost productivity.
It’s also subject to abuse. Some employees consider it another week of vacation, while others treat it wisely. In my case, I have gone years without taking a sick day and even now will work through minor illness.
So, let’s look at some math. Assuming each employee uses their entire five days of paid tie off, Your simple description of the business owner as a cheapskate just ended up costing him $13,000. Most small business owners simply can’t absorb that kind of cost and remain solvent. They aren’t lighting cigars with $100 bills like in the cartoons.
So in this guys case, it’s cheaper and far easier for him to let one employee go and hold his business at 15 employees rather than absorb the cost. To provide sick time, it’s the cost of 1/2 an employee for an entire year.
Again, I stipulate that it’s a great benefit and one that most employers would like to offer, but it’s not the business of Lisanti or other Government overlords to offer. It’s for the employer to offer as an incentive to get and keep great staff.
Being on both sides of this coin, I can tell you this is a good benefit. Larger companies already offer better benefits to employees versus that of their smaller competitor. The smaller companies operate in empowerment zones, register under their wives’ name to get minority status and many would not even offer medical care unless required to do so. All this is done to keep operating costs lower.. not for the benefit of the business but in many cases to line the pockets of the owners and the expense of the employees.
Many people who work for small business do not have all the benefits of the larger companies so when a family member dies, they are forced to use the little vacation time or take a paid day off. When they are sick, they are forced to come to work or not get paid. Since the smaller companies are more dependent on their employees, the companies are less likely to allow them time off, much less paid time off. If this does nothing else, it will allow an equal playing field for small business by requiring the benefits provided be equal from one employer to another.
My company provides paid sick leave and employees still come to work sick. We do not require Physician statements unless the illness is extended beyond 3 days. We wanted to provide flexibility for employees so we label it “Personal Time”. We previously called it “Sick Leave” but, we changed it to “Personal Time” so if the employee doesn’t get sick, they can still take the time off with pay. We found that some employees view it as an additional week of vacation so instead of using it if they get sick, they come to work to preserve it for other time off. Now I have to check with our attorney to determine if we need to go back to calling it “Sick Leave” to comply with the new law. Legislation does have consequences. Our employees may be worse off than they were under our previous policy. I will provide their Deleigates and Senators names and phone numbers if we have to make changes that effect them negatively.
maybe you need to offer more vacation time
Other than the Government, our vacation policy is competitive with private industry. We offer the Personal Time off in addition to vacation. We can’t compete with the government in this area, we are a for Profit business.
“s”, your diatribe is more of the same old right wing scare tactic bullshit.
Get real, the good Delegate backed this legislation for the aforementioned legitimate reason, and you throw the same shit against the fan.
And, like she stated, with the substantial tax break coming from the federal level, I’m sure that businesses of all sizes will be taking in substantial savings!
Delegate Lisanti failed to acknowledge the emails and letters sent to her from the Harford County Chamber of Commerce opposing the bill. And, unfortunately, Delegate Lisanti fails to cite the impact this bill will have on businesses relative to additional costs in record keeping etc.
Angela Rose works for employers not employees. The County Chamber of Commerce is a special interest lobby . It is not a constituent. Your vote doesn’t count as a constituent.
Typical Maryland Democrat. Why don’t they
all move to California where they can enjoy
a state where these business crushing policies are already in place?
Thank you Delegate Lisanti for your support of working families. Earned sick leave is a vital benefit to our families, children, workers and community.
I found that offering sick leave and vacation pay allowed me to hire a more qualified employee. It was easy to steal people from my competition whenever I wanted and that bozo was constantly training people costing him substantially more and weeding out people I didn’t waste my time with.
You don’t actually own a business, if you do, what is it? Those are talking points.
Tree service, any other talking points dip stick?
Harford Republican – what’s up with the personal insults? You snarky liberals are very brave when you can hide your identities.
Post the name of your business asshat, so we can not utilize yours.
Nobody is going to post their “real name” or their “business.”
You people are fucking nut jobs, who knows what you are planning to do once you “find out” the information that the name of someone to their home or work place.
To be fair, from my own experience conservatives only post the names of businesses when they person associated with said business is a liberal.
Harford Republican, aka County Asshole and Snarky Liberal, get back on your meds man. Stop insulting people and learn how to debate.
“aka?” I’m just 1 person using “County asshole” as my one and only annnonymous name in this need article.
You must be one of those scared of their own shadow, paranoid conservative shit for brains.
And what do you plan on doing when you find out what this person’s business is?
You going to drive there, with what intent?
Based on their views of treating their employees like crap, I would avoid doing business there.
This will be great… unless you’re one of the people that have to go so a business will be 14 employees… or you’re one of the 14 that have to pick up the slack from the loss of the ones that had to go. Oh, well have to break a few eggs right? Throwing a few people’s lives into immense turmoil is necessary for the greater good.
So, are you advocating that this bill should apply to ALL businesses, no matter the number of employees? I like that idea!
Where did it seem that I was advocating for anything? I was merely pointing out that this bill to help everyone will hurt some. It remains to be seen how many but there are bound to be businesses with just a bit over 15 employees where someone will lose their position to be below the threshold. But so what if some have to lose their livelihood so some others can have paid sick leave? More will benefit. They should be happy about helping their fellow man as they lay awake wondering how they’ll pay the bills. Will Ms. Lisanti be helping those folks that lose their jobs? If you don’t like what an employer is offering, don’t take the job. If you don’t like what your employer provides, leave. Can’t leave? Learn a skill so you can. Or you can vote for folks that will legislate for equal outcome instead of equal opportunity.
The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good.
Why not you say what you really want to say… “F^ck ‘em. I’m a union boss and I’ll never have the kind of worries that little people have”.
I don’t know if you can call me a union boss. I have a term limit. In a couple short years, I will no longer be HCEA President. As to the issue of earned sick leave, HCEA has one employee. We afford her paid sick leave and vacation leave. I fail to see why others cannot.
I have all the worries everyone has. I live in a modest home in Aberdeen. I make a modest salary. I work more than I should. I worry about my kids and my wife and my family. I also worry about teachers, and students, and public education.
The bill was a compromise. It will not help everyone but it will help almost everyone.
All you need to know is Ryan Burbey (union leader) says it is a good thing to know that it is not a good thing. While most of the states in our country will be enjoying a long overdue economic resurgence after the impotent recovery under Obama, the citizens of Maryland because of its high state tax rates and business regulations like the one Lisanti voted for will be mired in virtually zero growth because local businesses will be stagnant and new businesses will go elsewhere. The one party rule that this state has endured will leave us behind just as one party rule has killed once thriving cities like Detroit, Baltimore, St Louis, and Cleveland. The next economic victims will be states like Maryland, and California. Buckle up…because pandering Democrats like Ms. Lisanti, led by Busch and Miller will continue to swindle elections by a low IQ voter base that falls prey to race-baiting and class warfare. It is going to be a bumpy ride.
What are working parents who’s kids get the flu supposed to do? If you are already barely making it, how do you take a day off to care for your kids? Previous to this folks could be fired for calling in sick. This bill is a huge step forward for kids, families, parents, working people, our communities and schools. It will have a positive impact on economic growth and educational outcomes for our most fragile communities. Thank you again Delegate Lisanti.
If you can’t afford kids don’t have them.
EZPZ
Hello? Suck it! EZPZ!
Mike may I suggest you move to Kansas where Republican Brownback has made the state a shining example of repubican policies. LOL
Lots of cherry picking there snarky liberal. Lets talk about Detroit, Newark, Chicago, and Baltimore. Kansas is the exception, dream on!
A couple of questions
Would this also relate to a server and a small restaurant of about 15/18 part time employees?
Another great Liberal Policy to stick it to the evil business owner.Stupid politicians & stupid liberals this will cost jobs as small business owners cut the staff to 14 people, just like lots of businesses cut their employees hours to avoid paying for health care for “full time” employees. Been to a McDonalds lately? Seen the auto ordering kiosk? That Kiosk doesn’t need sick leave or $15.00 / hour and that kiosk is the future of entry level employment here in Maryland.
Any Liberal that doesn’t like the way things are going in the business community can feel free to start their own business and show us all how it’s done instead of meddling in things Liberals are clearly too stupid to understand.
McDonalds is installing those kiosks for no other reason then it eliminates employees. Saying it’s because of sick pay or health care or any thing else is stupid. Regardless of legislation replacing people with electronics is the future in all industries.
Kay, you are making my point. McDonalds wants to eliminate employees because machines are CHEAPER! Why are the Machines cheaper Kay? Why? Oh, because machines don’t need sick pay, or health care, or a salary that can be arbitrarily raised by politicians looking for votes.
McDonalds answers to the shareholders, do you honestly think charging $1 for a hamburger and $1 for a coke allows enough profit for a $15 per hour worker? You can go to any fancy restaurant and order a restaurant style hamburger but you will pay about $10 for it. Most McDonalds employees that are good at what they do eventually climb the ladder to better paying positions. McDonalds is an entry level job at best.
Actually, McDonald’s profit margins would easily support $15/hour. In fact, McDonald’s already pays higher wages in many other states and countries.
Actually you made my point. there is no correlation between automated ordering and sick pay.
But there is a correlation between sick pay and the cost of having humans. The more expensive human workers become the more likely that they will be replaced by automated ordering systems. I am amazed at your inability to grasp the concept that benefits for humans cost money, and when the cost of machines becomes cheaper than the cost of people then the people will lose their jobs.
If you take all benefits away from employees the automated systems are still coming. One has nothing to do with the other. Are you stupid?
“As an added advance, the new tax legislation passed by Congress provides tax relief to businesses therefore any anticipated implementation cost should be negligible.”
The Republicans giveth and the Democrats taketh away.
The Republicans taketh away our freedom and the Democrats protecteth freedom!
Mike, please reread history and you will see that the Democratic party has been the controlling party that passed the majority of law that has actually destroyed our rights and freedoms. The Republicans never reversed such laws during their times of control and are just as culpable for the loss of liberty inflicted upon the people. Both parties are detrimental to the freedoms of the people and both parties wish to see the individual rights guaranteed to us forgotten and abdicated. Basically, both political gangs wish to relieve you of your rights and freedoms. They just go about it in different ways….
What happened to Lisanti? I think she’s flipped her wig a little.She used to be somewhat reliable. Now it’s like the old saying goes: :”there’s only 2 things I don’t like about Maryann, and that’s her face”