More than 200 businesses back Nebraska paid sick leave ballot measure • Nebraska Examiner

The ballot measure would require businesses with 20 or fewer employees to fund a minimum of five paid sick days a year for full-time employees. Bigger businesses would be required to fund seven days of paid sick leave.

Full- and part-time employees would earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The measure seeks to close gaps in coverage for people working in factories, agriculture and other service jobs, including restaurants and retail. 

Hundreds of thousands without leave

Organizers cite economic estimates showing that more than a third of full-time employees in Nebraska and more than three-fourths of Nebraska part-time employees lack paid sick leave. In total, that means more than 250,000 workers are without paid sick leave.

Lindsey Clements, co-owner of Vis Major brewery and restaurant, said she and many of the other business owners who signed on see the job benefit as a valuable investment in recruiting and retaining quality employees — and keeping customers safe.

Her business already offers sick leave. She called it a “smart, responsible decision that promotes a healthier, more sustainable industry.” She said the restaurant industry and others employ a number of people who live paycheck to paycheck. 

Businesses that put those workers in a position to choose between their financial well-being and their own health or the health of their family are risking the motivations of the people who help make their businesses run, Clements said. 

If every similar business had to offer a minimum level of sick leave for workers, she said, the service industry would see less employee turnover, “leading to better service and a more positive dining experience.”  

Why some support it

Rafael Santa-Maria, chief operating officer of Caring for People Services, which does in-home health care for the elderly and people with disabilities, said his industry would benefit from paid sick leave, and vulnerable people seeking help would, too.

His business offers paid time off, he said, but many companies in that service field don’t. In the short run, that might help those companies save money. But it could cost them and their customers, Santa-Maria said.