Does your employer offer paid sick time?

[BigMeatballDave]

Mine does not, however, next year they may have to. Up to 7 days per year.

http://www.ohio.com/business/10783746.html

Group seeks law for paid sick time

Ohio coalition to give signatures to legislature to take up idea in '08

By Tracy Wheeler Beacon Journal medical writer

Published on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007

As a nurse, Debbie Crawford has seen a woman reduced to tears when she was unable to immediately schedule a test on an abdominal mass because she couldn't get off work.

She has seen a 38-year-old man suffer a stroke, the symptoms of which could have been uncovered in an annual exam if he had been able to leave work for the doctor's office.

She has seen a mother unable to pick up her scabies- and lice-infected daughter at school because she couldn't leave her job at a day-care center.

In each of these cases, Crawford said, businesses end up paying more to deal with the repercussions of these health problems in health care costs and time off than if they had offered paid sick leave.

Crawford, a registered nurse at Norton Family Practice, was part of a statewide tour in support of the Ohio Healthy Families Act. The tour stopped in Akron Wednesday morning.

Backed by the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, the legislation would require businesses with 25 or more workers to allow full-time employees to earn seven paid sick days per year. Part-time workers could earn a smaller, prorated number of paid sick days based on the number of hours they work.

The Ohioans for Healthy Families coalition said that 42 percent of Ohio's private-sector work force has no paid sick days; that's about 2.2 million workers.

''They have to choose be tween paychecks and taking care of their family,'' said Dale Butland, a coalition spokesman. ''That's a choice no Ohioan should have to make.''

The legislation is supported by numerous labor organizations and medical groups. The business community, though, is gearing up to fight the effort.

With recent state laws increasing the minimum wage and banning smoking, if the mandated paid sick leave also is passed, ''Ohio will not be an attractive place to do business. Ohio can't continue to be one of the highest-cost states in the nation for business,'' said Ty Pine, legislative director of the Ohio chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Pine said 93 percent of the federation's Ohio businesses offer sick leave, though not all the time is paid.

''Employers already work with employees,'' he said. ''They'll allow employees to make up time by coming in an hour early the rest of the week, or taking a half-hour lunch, or working an hour later.''

Not all workers want the same things, Pine added. Some workers may want paid sick leave, he said, but others might prefer that money be spent on health care costs, 401(k) plans or raises.

''Different people value different things,'' he said.

Business owners also worry about abuse.

[ChiTown]

My employer is a cock sucker.

[BigMeatballDave]

Heres more...

With paid sick leave, Pine said, ''the trend will probably continue that most Americans get sick on Mondays, Fridays and first day of hunting season.''

That's not so, Butland said. According to the 2004 National Health Interview Survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half (53.7 percent) of workers who have paid sick leave did not miss a day of work that year.

Under the proposed legislation, sick leave could be used for absences resulting from physical or mental illness, a doctor's appointment for diagnosis or preventive care, or caring for a child, parent or spouse who has a physical or mental illness or needs a diagnosis or preventive care.

Of the workers who have paid sick leave, Butland said, 30 percent cannot use it to take care of a sick child.

The coalition has gathered about 140,000 signatures, which will be submitted to the Ohio General Assembly in January. At that point, legislators will have 120 days to act. If they don't, campaign manager Brian Dunn said, the coalition would gather more signatures to place the issue on the November 2008 ballot.

[BigMeatballDave]

My employer is a cock sucker.You work for a prostitute?
:)

[The Franchise]

Yes I get 3.5 hours of sick leave every 2 weeks.

[ChiTown]

You work for a prostitute?
:)

No, but my wife has 40% ownership in my business, so........ :)

[Stewie]

We get PTO - Paid Time Off. It takes into account sick time and vacation time. I get six weeks per year.

[BigMeatballDave]

No, but my wife has 40% ownership in my business, so........ :)LMAO

[kstater]

I think all full-time employees should get some sick leave. While I think 7 days might be a bit much, I think 4-5 days would be appropriate.
I personally get 5 days a year for sick and 3 personal days and 2 weeks vacation. Been there five years and have never used a sick or personal day.

"She has seen a mother unable to pick up her scabies- and lice-infected daughter at school because she couldn't leave her job at a day-care center."

This mother should never have taken her kid to school in the first place.

[ChiTown]

We get PTO - Paid Time Off. It takes into account sick time and vacation time. I get six weeks per year.

That's pretty damned good. Does it rollover, or do you lose it if you don't use it?

[Bob Dole]

Bob Dole accrues 10 hours a month.

[Fish]

Sounds good in principle, but lazy idiots will surely find a way to exploit this....

[kstater]

We get PTO - Paid Time Off. It takes into account sick time and vacation time. I get six weeks per year.
:eek: How can I get some of that?

[Stewie]

That's pretty damned good. Does it rollover, or do you lose it if you don't use it?

You can roll over one years worth of PTO. If you have more than that in your bank you lose it.

[ChiTown]

You can roll over one years worth of PTO. If you have more than that in your bank you lose it.

Holy shite! That's a damn good bene. Are they as liberal with the rest of your full benefits?

[Stewie]

:eek: How can I get some of that?

Work at the same employer for 16 years.

[The Rick]

I work for the government (local county government), so paid sick time is one of the advantages. :)

All full-time employees here get 8 hours of sick time for every month in which they work a majority of the month. Our sick time hours get "banked" and we can accumulate up to 960 hours of sick time.

That doesn't count vacation. I started here in 2001. As of the 1st of January 2009, I'll have been here 9 calendar years even though I started late 2001. That will bump me up to 4 weeks of paid vacation per year. It jumps to 5 weeks of paid vacation when you reach 15 years.

[Dunit35]

We get four hours a month I think, or four hours every paycheck. It's paid.

[BigMeatballDave]

I personally get 5 days a year for sick and 3 personal days and 2 weeks vacation.

Lucky bastard. I get 2 weeks. Period.

[BigMeatballDave]

Sounds good in principle, but lazy idiots will surely find a way to exploit this....To be sure...

[Stewie]

Holy shite! That's a damn good bene. Are they as liberal with the rest of your full benefits?

Our benefits are typical as far as health, disability, etc., but our company stock plan is outstanding.

[BigMeatballDave]

You can roll over one years worth of PTO. If you have more than that in your bank you lose it.Damn. You can take up to 12 weeks off every other year. Does that sound right?

[ChiTown]

When I worked for "the man", I got 4 weeks vacation, and 10 sick days. However, the sick days were only paid if you used them as such. Most of the salaried guys never took sick days. However, the hourly employees almost ALWAYS used their 10 days per year.

[Stewie]

Damn. You can take up to 12 weeks off every other year. Does that sound right?

I could if I wanted to, but I have trouble using 6 weeks per year so my bank is usually pretty high. I always take time around the holidays to use up several days and two weeks in the summer to go to the mountains.

[ChiTown]

I could if I wanted to, but I have trouble using 6 weeks per year so my bank is usually pretty high. I always take time around the holidays to use up several days and two weeks in the summer to go to the mountains.

What industry do you work in?

[Stewie]

What industry do you work in?

Aerospace

[StcChief]

No, but my wife has 40% ownership in my business, so........ :)
ROFL at 40% she could deny services....

[Rain Man]

When I worked for "the man", I got 4 weeks vacation, and 10 sick days. However, the sick days were only paid if you used them as such. Most of the salaried guys never took sick days. However, the hourly employees almost ALWAYS used their 10 days per year.

Working hourly must be bad for your health.

[ottawa_chiefs_fan]

Move to Canada - we have employers by the throat up here.

[wilas101]

We get 5 days of sick pay each year apart from vacation days. Very few people just use them for an extra day off because the company will pay us for unused days at the end of the year.

Stay healthy get an extra paycheck.

[StcChief]

Move to Canada - we have employers by the throat up here.no thanks I'll keep my tax money

[chasedude]

I get one sick day and one vacation day a month... 12 each for the year. Guess I could count myself as a lucky one! :D

[Coach]

My sick hours accumulate every pay period I get. 3.06 hours per payperiod. Same applys to vacation time.

There is no cap for sick leave, but there is a 2 week limit for vacation time.

[CoMoChief]

I get 10 days a year, but since I started late in the year they pro rate it and I have 7 now. This isn't however including paid vacation and personal time.

[Braincase]

My situation absolutely rocks.

My employer does a fantastic job developing employee loyalty, at least with the trainers. I am typically in the classroom teaching 15 days out of 20 per month. During that 5 day period, I am expected to prep for upcoming classes, but it's also time I can use to schedule doctor's and dentist exams, and any other thing that needs paying attention, too. Their policy is that I'm expected to be ready to teach the class on Monday, so be ready on Monday. I get a couple of weeks vacation a year, and get to go to one conference a year on the company dime. As I go to Microsoft's TechEd conference in Orlando on Microsoft's dime, I'm sure I'll get to go to a Microsoft Certified Trainer Summit in Seattle in February on the company tab.

My employer is fantastic, and if Kevin, Ted or Neill read this, I want to say thanks in a somewhat public fashion for being cool.

You, too, Dean.

[phisherman]

i get unlimited (within reason) paid sick days....i think once you do so many concurrent sick days, you're forced to file for short term disability, but people in my group have abused this in the past w/out having to file for STD

plus a paid time off allocation every year...

i work at home though, don't take much sick time

[Brock]

The company I used to work for would pay you 150 percent for all unused sick leave. Then they told us they were going to a "use it or lose it" policy, so everybody started using it.

[DaFace]

We get PTO - Paid Time Off. It takes into account sick time and vacation time. I get six weeks per year.

That's the way ours works, though you get a whole lot more time off than I do.

Dammit, Rain Man!! :cuss:

[Valiant]

We get PTO - Paid Time Off. It takes into account sick time and vacation time. I get six weeks per year.


That PTO is a racket for most businesses.. My lost job went on and on about how much better it was for the worker until I went in and added up all the hours I was losing for holiday pay/sick pay/vacation pay; it ended being over 2+ weeks of pay I was losing.. Man they did not like me bitching about and when the regional president was at our meetings I asked about it and my managers got pissed for me calling him out like that in front of everybody.. That cocksucker said it was great and he would answer my questions after the meeting, ****er left right after it...

Employees won in the end, we quit timing out for lunch..


If your company is talking about switching to PTO fight it, they will screw with you when you need it.. As most places that have sick time you get it from the start, whereas PTO if you sick when it switches over at the fiscal year you are ****ed because to PTO has accrued first so you can use it.. Also most places that I know that PTO do not let you carry much/if any of it over into the new year.. They make you take it or give you a check for the remaining balance..

[Valiant]

You can roll over one years worth of PTO. If you have more than that in your bank you lose it.


Good for you, my experience with PTO has been atrocious..

[Terribilis]

My company's policy is that if you are sick stay home, you'll still get paid. Take as much as you need. Every now and then someone abuses it, but for the most part everyone respects the policy, and we are all very happy.

[Valiant]

I work for the government (local county government), so paid sick time is one of the advantages. :)

All full-time employees here get 8 hours of sick time for every month in which they work a majority of the month. Our sick time hours get "banked" and we can accumulate up to 960 hours of sick time.

That doesn't count vacation. I started here in 2001. As of the 1st of January 2009, I'll have been here 9 calendar years even though I started late 2001. That will bump me up to 4 weeks of paid vacation per year. It jumps to 5 weeks of paid vacation when you reach 15 years.


And holidays... Which it seems there are at least two every month..


And for the banking suckers.. How in the hell do you get an extra day off if the holiday falls on a Sunday??? And why in the hell are you even closed on Sundays anymore, I know of two banks that are open till noon on Sundays at certain locations because of business.. And while I am at it, why is it I can deposit a check at the ATM 6PM Friday and it will not hit my account till monday or Tuesday, but if I go Saturday and deposit it goes into my account before noon.. ****ing big banking..

[Megbert]

Nope. I work for a small company and I don't even get 'official vacation time'. What I mean is I don't get 1-2 weeks of paid vacation. (I do get paid for the day or 2 I take off) I have to plan my vacations around my work schedule. Which basically means I can take a Friday or a Monday off for an extended weekend.

Last year I took a Friday off (Friday before the Chiefs/Cards game) to spend time with my cousin who flew in for the game. I had to have him at the airport at 5:30 am Monday. So instead of going back home I went straight to work. Got there around 6 am. After noon I asked my boss if I could go home at 3 since I was at work 2 hours early. He said No, you had Friday off so you can make up that time.

[Valiant]

Nope. I work for a small company and I don't even get 'official vacation time'. What I mean is I don't get 1-2 weeks of paid vacation. (I do get paid for the day or 2 I take off) I have to plan my vacations around my work schedule. Which basically means I can take a Friday or a Monday off for an extended weekend.

Last year I took a Friday off (Friday before the Chiefs/Cards game) to spend time with my cousin who flew in for the game. I had to have him at the airport at 5:30 am Monday. So instead of going back home I went straight to work. Got there around 6 am. After noon I asked my boss if I could go home at 3 since I was at work 2 hours early. He said No, you had Friday off so you can make up that time.


Wow I would get a new job.. Does your boss abide by the same rules???

[beavis]

All I got to say is, be careful what you wish for... The ****ers over here get 5 weeks of paid vacation the day they start. After they've been an employee for a year, it's virtually impossible to get rid of them. I don't understand how anyone keeps a business running over here. The sad part is, they aren't even close to the worst ones in Europe.

[HemiEd]

I just used my first two and half sick days last week, after 11 years with the company.

I have "Whatever I need" when it comes to vacation. So far, it has been 6 weeks this year. I plan on taking off for Thanksgiving and Christmas.:D

[DaFace]

Good for you, my experience with PTO has been atrocious..

Ours actually works pretty well. We still get holidays off. Also, I'm a pretty healthy guy most of the time, so I like the fact that my sick days become vacation days if I stay healthy.

[HemiEd]

All I got to say is, be careful what you wish for... The ****ers over here get 5 weeks of paid vacation the day they start. After they've been an employee for a year, it's virtually impossible to get rid of them. I don't understand how anyone keeps a business running over here. The sad part is, they aren't even close to the worst ones in Europe.

No kidding, one of the main reasons they have trouble competing in the world market.
Motorola opened a plant in Scotland I believe, was losing money and wanted to shut it down. They couldn't, they were required to employ the workers until they found suitable employment elsewhere. Anyway, that is the way I heard it.

[BigMeatballDave]

All I got to say is, be careful what you wish for... The ****ers over here get 5 weeks of paid vacation the day they start. After they've been an employee for a year, it's virtually impossible to get rid of them. I don't understand how anyone keeps a business running over here. The sad part is, they aren't even close to the worst ones in Europe.I get the impression that European workers are just plain lazy.

[HemiEd]

I get the impression that European workers are just plain lazy.

They are just farther along the same progression we are on, IMO.

[mikey23545]

Heres more...

With paid sick leave, Pine said, ''the trend will probably continue that most Americans get sick on Mondays, Fridays and first day of hunting season.''

That's not so, Butland said. According to the 2004 National Health Interview Survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half (53.7 percent) of workers who have paid sick leave did not miss a day of work that year.



That is as irrelevant an answer as I have ever seen. What days did that other 46.3% miss?

[mikey23545]

They are just farther along the same progression we are on, IMO.

Yep.

[2bikemike]

My employer gives us 80 hours a year. You can roll it over indefinately. No max caps. It is a very generous plan.

[DaKCMan AP]

We get personal days and vacation. The amount of vacation is dependent on position and/or length of time with the company.

[beavis]

I get the impression that European workers are just plain lazy.
It's not even that they are lazy... it's just a different mentality. They aren't as defined by their work as we are.

I also think that when the fear of losing your job/healthcare is eliminated, you'd probably be less motivated to do your job well.

[Phobia]

I give my guys zero. If they're not working they're not making money. If they're not making money I'm not making money. Of course, most of them smoke and get the hack every couple of months that knocks them out for a couple days. But construction is different than any other industry, generally. Tough job.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

I am my own employer and hell no I don't offer paid sick time. I suck!!! But then I always figured why would anybody need to throw up at home when we have perfectly good facilities for them to puke at right here at work.

[HonestChieffan]

Im self employed so no one pays me for doing nothing.

Socialists.

[Pushead2]

I get a pack of Ritz and they tell me to sober up.

[KC Jones]

The sick time stories in the article remind me of when I told my asshole boss at the last company that I was leaving because I couldn't take the stress and the hours anymore, he told me a little story. He told me that once before when he had just picked up his daughter from day care a VP called and told him he had to be back at the office within 40 minutes because they were having trouble with something. She (the VP) was quite threatening and basically it was do it or lose his job. He ended up having to leave his daughter with neighbors he didn't know very well in order to save his job and make his management chain happy. He said he had really struggled with that decision. The point he was trying to make was that he had chosen career over everything else. He went on to indicate I would make the same choice when the time came, and that then I would climb very far up the ladder.

I was disgusted and disturbed by his story and immediately believed he had made the wrong choice. I really don't know how people can live with themselves that behave that way towards their employees. I'm so happy I got out of that organization.

As for sick time, we just have one big pool of paid leave. Use it for vacation or for when you're sick. I think that's generally the best policy.

[Stewie]

That PTO is a racket for most businesses.. My lost job went on and on about how much better it was for the worker until I went in and added up all the hours I was losing for holiday pay/sick pay/vacation pay; it ended being over 2+ weeks of pay I was losing.. Man they did not like me bitching about and when the regional president was at our meetings I asked about it and my managers got pissed for me calling him out like that in front of everybody.. That cocksucker said it was great and he would answer my questions after the meeting, ****er left right after it...

Employees won in the end, we quit timing out for lunch..


If your company is talking about switching to PTO fight it, they will screw with you when you need it.. As most places that have sick time you get it from the start, whereas PTO if you sick when it switches over at the fiscal year you are ****ed because to PTO has accrued first so you can use it.. Also most places that I know that PTO do not let you carry much/if any of it over into the new year.. They make you take it or give you a check for the remaining balance..

It sounds like your company was lowering the hammer and using PTO as a way to screw the employee. Our PTO plan is pretty generous so people don't have much room to complain. Oh, and we get 11 holidays per year plus a personal holiday. Holidays don't count against PTO. You made it sound like you had to use PTO for holidays. That's one cheap-ass company.

[Alton deFlat]

I get 3.7 hours of sick leave every pay period or about 12 days per year. There's no limit on how much you accumulate.
I also get 6.5 hours of vacation per pay period. Near the end of the fiscal year, you can only carry over 4 weeks.
We also get 8 hours of additional leave to be used for for anything (i.e. religious holiday, birthday, hard on).

[pikesome]

My wife's a nurse and she has always gotten PTO. They don't get holidays (she's been at a hospital her whole career) but they do get holiday pay (depends on the employer, sometimes it's 1.5X time) when they work holidays and the schedule wonk trys to even the holidays out. It's seems to be a common practice for nurses to use their PTO to even out low checks also. I've never set down and delved too deep but so far we haven't had any complaints about how it works out. The biggest problem is always getting off time approved, hospital staffing is regulated so it's a bit harder for her to just take off than the average person.

[Chief Pote]

I'd tell you schlepps, but my employer frowns upon devulging personal data. They had to kill the last guy.

BTW, just watched "Chuck" the other night. :D

[arrowheadnation]

I get 18.6 hours of PTO per month. Triple time on holidays if I have to work them.

[luv]

The only PTO I get is vacation. Until next year, I get 11 days (of which, I have 4 left). I usually plan a week off around August and save the others to use to cover sick days. I haven't been sick enough to miss work, so I'm taking a little mini-vacation in November as well.

[dtebbe]

We are a small company (5 people) but I took a page from what Turner did when I set up our time off benefits. We do PTO (paid time off)

Basically our new employees get:

40 hours "vacation" PTO
32 hours "sick" PTO

However the 72 total hours per year can be used for either sick or vaction, it's thier PTO to use as they please. We've found (as at Turner) that employees are much more likely to schedule the time off when you do it this way, which has a much smaller impact on operations.

On thier 2nd anniversary they get another 40 hours of PTO (pretty much a 2nd week of vaction). We let our employees take even 1 hour at a time.

We also give all the major holidays off paid.

Just curious how this sounds to you guys. I've always thought it was pretty cool.

DT

[Kylo Ren]

:eek: How can I get some of that? I get almost 35 days / 7 weeks of PTO time. In '08, I'll get 36 days.

[dtebbe]

I get almost 35 days / 7 weeks of PTO time. In '08, I'll get 36 days.

When I was at Turner, because of the 24/7 hours of operation we didn't have such thing as holidays, but boy we had PTO. We started with 4 weeks of vaction, and at 5 years it went to 6. The bigger departments there made you take it a week at a time, but my boss was cool and let me take it 2 or 3 days at a time. I found myself taking off just for the hell of it when I was there. It really was a good company to work for, despite being aquired by A-hole-L

I guess the downside was that I worked half-days on Thanksgiving and other holidays most years.

DT