Connecticut’s largest business association opposes a bill to expand the state’s paid sick leave law to cover all workers. The bill is part of the Democrats’ legislative agenda this year.
It would disproportionately affect the smallest businesses, including women and minority-owned businesses and nonprofits, said CBIA’s Ashley Zane, at a public hearing of the Labor and Public Employee Committee on Thursday.
“Essentially what this bill does is that it treats the diner down the street that is small family-owned, local, the same as multibillion-dollar corporations like Amazon and Walmart,” she said.
Committee member Representative Anne Hughes (D-Easton) defended the bill. She said the COVID-19 pandemic showed why an expanded paid sick leave mandate is needed.
“There is a new economy that has to create some essential paid time off; otherwise, you are infecting your public, you’re infecting your co-workers. And there is an economic cost to that as well as a real human toll,” Hughes said.
Current state law mandates only employers with 50 or more workers provide paid sick leave to their employees.
