Milwaukee’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance was supposed to take effect on February 10, 2009, after being enacted via a referendum. The ordinance states that employers must offer one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours of work, although not more than seventy-two hours for one year. However, smaller businesses shall only be required to pay for forty hours of sick leave a year.

At first, this bill looks harmless. In fact, it is very reasonable that people should have paid sick leave. But we have to remember that these are no longer the times of Teddy Roosevelt and Fighting Bob LaFollette. Working conditions are very good. People are no longer waking up at five in the morning and getting home at nine like my grandfather did.They’re going to work at nine and going home at five. The workplace is safer and more sanitary than it has been in the past. Yet, some people want to go far beyond any reasonable compromise and take nine days of sick leave every year.

Those in favor of the ordinance say that employers will actually benefit from the ordinance. But according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 99.9% of employers were against it. If the ordinance were in favor of employers, you would think that at least a few employers would be in favor of it. But most employers know that if paid sick leave is offered for nine days out of the year, people will take sick leave for nine days out of the year no matter how minuscule their sickness. It’s called human nature. The paid sick days should really be referred to as paid vacation days.

You really know there must be something wrong with the ordinance when the single largest employer in the nation, the government, is excluded from offering paid sick leave, not that the majority of government workers do not have enough benefits as it is. This ordinance excludes all government workers at the federal, state and local level.

Furthermore, small businesses will undoubtedly be hurt the most by this ordinance. It is true that the bill does make exceptions for them, but small businesses will still be harmed. This becomes even more relevant in light of the fact that many small businesses are facing extinction.

Among other things this ordinance was meant to prevent employees from being fired for taking days off to take care of medical issues for themselves or family members. Quite frankly, in economic times like these, if employers have to give paid sick leave for nine days out of the year, the businesses will have to cut jobs anyways. In fact, employers have already let go a lot of people because the economy is so bad.

Moreover, it is possible that some businesses may just get up and move to a neighboring suburb. Not to mention that companies will be unwilling to start up in Milwaukee. What does that mean? Job growth will take a drastic downturn. Many of those people who were so adamant about getting paid sick leave will have all the time off they want.

So while more employees get laid off and companies go out of business, voters in Milwaukee can remember why the founders of our nation were so frightened of a direct democracy where the electorate voted on the issues and why they chose to establish a representative democracy.

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