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

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

OMAHA — Organizers of a November ballot measure that would require Nebraska businesses to provide employees with a minimum level of paid sick leave announced Wednesday that they had secured the public backing of more than 200 businesses.

Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans rolled out the list of supportive businesses as part of the latest step in a campaign that has of yet drawn no organized public opposition. Years of polling on the issue indicates bipartisan support for its aims.

Lindsey Clements, co-owner of Vis Major brewery and restaurant, speaks during a news conference for Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans. (Aaron Sanderford/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.

Craig Moody, a sponsor of the ballot measure for paid sick leave and co-founder of Verdis Group, a sustainability consulting firm in Omaha, speaks. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

“Having a person decide between employment and health is a paradox,” he said. “This is not only a single impact point, as illnesses can be spread swiftly among workers … whose main duty is to care for vulnerable populations.” 

The Rev. Debra McKnight, founder and pastor of Urban Abbey, a coffee shop, bookstore and church, said Nebraska employers have economic and moral reasons to adopt paid sick leave. Economically, she said, people focus on work better when they feel secure.

Morally, she said, people working without the security blanket of paid leave still get sick and have families. People should care enough about those workers to extend the same courtesies they would want for themselves and their loved ones.

Her business offers paid leave, she said.

“People are people, and they should matter to us,” she said. “They should matter to us deeply … people over profit.” 

McKnight and Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans co-sponsor Craig Moody, who runs Verdis Group, a sustainability consulting firm based in Omaha, said the ballot measure would provide a strong return on investment for Nebraska businesses.

“A healthy community and workplace is an investment and has a high return for all of us, including people not sneezing on our dinner,” McKnight said. “I understand budgets are hard, but it seems like a pretty easy place for all of us to start.”

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