Beck freaks out at idea of NY passing law requiring employers to give paid sick days
November 18, 2009 5:51 pm ET
From the November 18 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck:
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As I understand it, the law will also mandate that the employee must provide proof of their illness by a physician to qualify for the paid sick leave, and that amount of sick leave is for only nine days a year for companies with ten employees or more and is not accumulative, so if you are a business owner who can't afford to let a sick employee off for a couple of days a year to have a healthy recovery from an illness then you have no business being in business.
The law passing is not a luxury. There is no luxury in protecting a persons livelihood and health.
As a employer I don't think I should pay some one who is sick, they are not at work producing. When did it become a necessity for employers to pay someone who is not there??
Oh wait the land of entitlement just give me, give me, give me whether I deserved, worked or earned it or not. If they have to pay sick days then how the heck are they going to buy health care. Government jobs can provide paid sick days because the government has PLENTY of taxpayer money to fund that.
That is right Obama will provide "free" health care to everyone free of charge. If you dont buy it you will be "fined" by the government, the "fine" will be collected through the IRS and if you dont pay it what might you think will happen to you ??????
Again you did not address the issue you just made a wandering aimless statement.
Note also, that the Bill of Rights does, however, say that you are granted or denied rights not explicitly mentioned as dictated by the laws of your state.
Now, the above statement may have been wandering but it has a clear aim: pointing out that, despite what you think, if such a law is passed you will indeed have to abide by it.
I'll address it for you. Your point is that the government does not have the power to require paid sick days because the Bill of Rights does not include this as a right. Of course, this is New York passing a law that concerns New Yorkers and the Bill of Rights DOES have something to say about that, albeit not directly. I present to you, the tenth amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
One other thing I might mention, is that it is the state government doing this. The Bill of Rights does not apply here, unless NY is violating someone's Constitutionally guaranteed rights. Since the Federal Constitution does not apply, only the NY State Constitution matters and I'm sure someone check to make sure it was constitutional.
So again, you are making statements about the US Constitution that are incorrect and irrelevant.
You are correct the Bill of Rights have no relevance to this issue. Still with states rights I feel that this is too far reaching to demand an employer to pay sick time.
As for States' rights, each State Constitution determines the limits of the State's own power. As long as it is not in conflict with the US Constitution or the State Constitution, the State can do whatever it wants. So for sick pay, I am more than sure it will qualify as being within NY's Constitutional Power.
Once again, I ask that you obtain a Constitutional Law book and read it. Chemerinsky writes an excellent book ("Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies") and is exceptionally intelligent (I've heard him speak on a couple of occasions).
Welfare - 1 : the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity <must look out for your own welfare>
2 a : aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need b : an agency or program through which such aid is distributed
Seems to me the goverment is granted this power.
You pay sick leave to your employees because you do not want them coming to work sick, infecting other employees and/or customers and producing less than effective work.
You pay sick leave to your employees because they are (presumably) good employees providing a service to you (at an exchange of goods and services)and (presumably again) you would like to keep valuable employees.
You provide sick leave to your employees because it is the right thing to do.
The government mandates having to pay sick leave to employees because employers like you put the bottom line above humanity always.
So people who are legitimately sick should suffer for those few who would attempt to defraud their employers which would be an illegal act?
Obviously not. You would seem to prefer that they come to work and risk the health of the other employees and your customers. I certainly hope you are not in the food service industry.
Why has an employee, who has worked for you, not earned paid sick leave?
What? I am not even sure how the two are related.
Are you really suprised that the government treats its employees more humanely than that of a private business owner?
The Health Care reform bill is not for providing "free" health care and never has been. Those of us who care about Health reform know that we will be paying into the system in order to use it.
Why don't you tell us what you think will happen to you?
Yes we need child labor but not FREE sick pay.
When in college the pharmacy students wrote their own scripts and gave them out for a price. Cook county Il
No you stay home and get better, if government and states would cut taxes - income, social security, medicare, property and others people could put more money in their pocket and BE ABLE TO TAKE THE DAY OR WEEK OFF WITH OUT FEAR!!
If the company has to provide sick days them that is money out of their pocket to pay for health care.
We have too many government and state employees doing redundant jobs or useless employees that can't be fired - DMV has some of the laziest people I know. Since the taxpayer pays the salary sure they can provide sick days the government will just raise taxes to pay the sick days.
Sure all the NEW TAXES will pay for it and since it does not start until 2014 they can tax us until then to make it "DEFICIT NEUTRAL".
You don't have health care, dont pay the fine, refuse to pay the IRS. You have your assets seized, go to court and finally jail.
Does that answer you stupid question?!?!!??
You keep using the term "free." I ask again, why hasn't an employee that works for you not earned paid sick leave? You seem to be fixated on the position that during that time of leave the worker is not earning their pay, but you seem to be ignoring the fact that the worker has indeed worked for you and in my opinion has earned to have time off if they have been diagnosed as ill.
Once again, you are describing an illegal act. Why should people who are legitimately sick be punished for those who would attempt to defraud and deceive?
Ah, I think I am starting to see your problem now. The people who this would benefit and protect are largely low wage income earners who are not paying alot in taxes anyway. We are talking about workers who have to make the choice between staying home sick and risking not being able to pay rent at the end of the month vs. going into work sick because they could not afford to take the day off. Surely this is something that you can understand, even with your hard lined position that they have not "earned" it.
Actually, all benefits and associated Employee costs, including paid sick leave, are budgeted before new employees are hired. I think you are also making the mistake that every employee with sick pay leave takes them. I worked for years at one job with sick paid leave and never used them, and in return the company gave me additional vacation days for every three days of sick paid leave that I did not take.
If they are low income jobs that almost surely means low skill or entry level type jobs. I don't see where this type of benefit qualifies with that type of job, as you move up and become a asset to a company your benefit or compensation package should be comparable.
Why does a employee need to earn sick time?? Again I go back to the fact that we pay too many and too much in taxes if we could keep more we would not need this silly regulation.
So NO ONE would defraud the system in order to get head? So the billions in Medicare and Medicaid fraud every year is not true?
The only companies that still offer sick leave is few and far between - except as you noted the GOVERNMENT JOBS. I knew a CHP officer that had little or no sick time in 30 years on the job he retired almost 5 years early with full pay for 5 years as sick pay? That sounds way to extreme at the TAXPAYERS EXPENSE, explain how this is fair when the CHP is funded thru tax revenue. He retired with 75 percent of his base salary at 53 years old he makes $112,000 with full benefits. This is way over the top if you ask me.
And it is opinions like this that make worker's unions necessary.
And I would point out again that the people that would benefit from this law the most are the one's who are paying the least in taxes already.
I would ask that you point out where I said that no one would attempt to defraud their employer. In fact, I asked you why people who are legitimately ill should be penalized by those who would defraud.
Really? I have never worked at a job that didn't offer some sort of system for paid sick leave and I have never worked for the government. I have been in systems where days were earned based on the number of days since your previous leave of absence to others that provided a certain number of days each year from the aniversary of your hire date. I can't think of one place that I have worked at that didn't have some form of paid sick leave... and I live in Texas.
I was offered a job as a project manager / estimator for a company I worked for periodically for those 20 years. I negotiated a 10 year contract for a fair salary which includes a percent of the profit on certain large jobs, a benefit package, a performance based salary increase with certain perks including a company vehicle which will be based on several factors including manpower budget ratios, job cost history, bids won and loss and profit margin per jobs just to name a few.
Not once did I feel the company should owe me paid sick time. So just because you pay less taxes you feel that they should get free sick time. Again these are low paying, non skilled or entry level positions that don't merit benefits much less paid sick time
When I talk to the company owners, they do this for selfish reasons. If a person doesn't get paid sick time they will often come to work sick because they can't afford to miss work. But generally speaking, sick workers are ineffective, reduce productivity, and get other people sick which just make matters worse.
For business owners not to give paid sick time is short-sighted, but we can't force business owners to be smart.
So there ARE slaves in this country???? Where is the media on THIS story???
"most of those people cannot afford to go to school"
two words: student loans
"cannot afford to.......move out of an area that has poor employment around it"
Wow, another newsflash. Man has been migrating around the world for millions of years to meet his needs, but now, suddenly, man is a "jurisdictional" slave as well.
Keep drinking the kool-aid pal.