MOCo paid sick leave bill

[Anonymous]

Really surprised there is no discussion recently here about the MoCO proposed sick leave bill and the fact it would give 7 days to ALL employees in the county plus I think currently it is set to allow for all 7 to be able to roll over into the next year so an employee could be out for a huge chunk of time at once. The proposal online also made it seem as if they will let employees use it one hour at a time. That strikes me as nuts given that I need to spend a half day of PTO to relieve my nanny for as little as 2 hours since my emiyrr in VA does not track in smaller than half day increments. Except for workers where you can just lengthen another employee's shift to cover the gap I fail to see how anyone can regularly cover gaps of of an hour here or there.

Set for discussion and apparently likely approval on 6/23.

Fwiw I do offer paid sick days (3) plus 12 days of vacation (5 at our pick for a week of overlap vacation) so it is not that I am opposed to paid PTO. But this bill is very extreme.

[Anonymous]

Why? About time hourly domestic employees have the same perks as their employers. I am not a nanny FWIW.

[Anonymous]

"Anonymous
Why? About time hourly domestic employees have the same perks as their employers. I am not a nanny FWIW."

My point was not that paid sick leave is inherently bad. But this is not "the same as their employers". It is much more generous.
I get 5 days a year. The billgives 7.
I have to use the time in half day increments which provides an incentive not to use it in tiny chunks in ways that are more disruptive for my employer. The bill says you can use an hour at a time.
My days are use or lose. The bill let's all 7 till over. So whereas I could miss one full week of work for being sick in a given year the bill would require the employee be allowed almost 3 weeks in a given year. (On top if any vacation time)

The bill is very excessive is my point. Sick leave - good. This version though - wildly over the top.

[Anonymous]

Aside from the assumption that you and your nanny would both be working in the same county (and therefore both have the same sick leave benefits), another assumption one might make is that in a standard household that employs a Nanny there are two working adults. Therefore it shouldn't just fall on one (say, the mother) to cover all of nanny's sick leave; there would likely be another (husband) to help cover occasionally, and between the two it would seem quite reasonable to cover one employees sick leave.

If you are a single parent and this is that much of a burden perhaps you need to reconsider your childcare situation (maybe daycare is a better option for you?).

[Anonymous]

Can you post a link to something online that suggests the leave must be given in one hour incriments? That's the only party that seems overly burdensome and I can't find anything like that. Otherwise, I'm guessing what most employers who already provide benefits will do is shift vacation time into either general PTO or sick leave.

[Anonymous]

OP, can you post this bill you are referring to? Are you sure it applies to all employees? Generally, policies like this exempt employers with less than 50 employees and therefore don't apply to nannies.

I fully believe in paid sick days for nannies, but this policy sounds like it would have a negative effect on nannies and clarification on its specifics are important.

Thanks, OP.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Here is the very long document that explains the bill:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2015/150611/20150611_HHS2.pdf

Here is an article about it: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Montgomery-County-Paid-Sick-Leave-Bill-Clears-Important-Hurdle/

Here is what it says about accrual:
Rate gf Accrual. The earned sick and safe leave provided under
subsection .ill) must accrue at !! rate of at least 1 hour for every 30 hours
an employee works in the County, except an employer must not be
required to allow an employee to:
ill earn more than 56 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year; or
ill use more than 80 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year.

[Anonymous]

This will cut down on the total PTO workers receive. Right now I give 12 days of PTO to be used at the nanny's discretion. I might add a couple as sick leave, but there is no way I'm adding 7 more PTO days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This will cut down on the total PTO workers receive. Right now I give 12 days of PTO to be used at the nanny's discretion. I might add a couple as sick leave, but there is no way I'm adding 7 more PTO days.

You will if that is the law. Most employers give 30 days PTO and nannies should have two week vacation plus the 7 sick days. I am not a nanny but people like you have been taking advantage of nannies forever by underpaying and overworking them. I hope and pray even more nanny, all domestic workers, friendly laws are enacted at the Federal level.

[Anonymous]

Which employers give 30 days PTO? I think in most private sector jobs a starting worker with that company would get 2 weeks plus 3-5 sick. That is far from 30 days.

[Anonymous]

"You will if that is the law. Most employers give 30 days PTO and nannies should have two week vacation plus the 7 sick days. I am not a nanny but people like you have been taking advantage of nannies forever by underpaying and overworking them. I hope and pray even more nanny, all domestic workers, friendly laws are enacted at the Federal level."

It is not at all true that most posters here do not give PTO already. Two weeks vacation and 3-5 sick is accepted as the norm and quoted often on DCUM. But it is legitimate to assess whether this new law means you should shift some of the PTO/vacation time to the required sick leave bucket rather than being forced to newly grant up to a weeks worth of additional time off on a given year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which employers give 30 days PTO? I think in most private sector jobs a starting worker with that company would get 2 weeks plus 3-5 sick. That is far from 30 days.

I guess you work for cheap companies because every comps,t I have ever worked for ga e 30 PTO from the start .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Here is the very long document that explains the bill:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2015/150611/20150611_HHS2.pdf

Here is an article about it: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Montgomery-County-Paid-Sick-Leave-Bill-Clears-Important-Hurdle/

Here is what it says about accrual:
Rate gf Accrual. The earned sick and safe leave provided under
subsection .ill) must accrue at !! rate of at least 1 hour for every 30 hours
an employee works in the County, except an employer must not be
required to allow an employee to:
ill earn more than 56 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year; or
ill use more than 80 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year.

Ok, so an employee accrues 1 hour per 30 worked hours, that doesn't say that the nanny can take an hour here or there. No more than 56 hours is no more than 7 days at 8 hours each, so 1 week and 2 days for a nanny who works 5 8 hour days each week. Finally, even if the nanny can rollover days, she can't use more than 80 hours is a year, which is 2 weeks of 8 hour days. I don't see what the big deal is.

My grandmother started working at a school in the 60s with 3 sick days per year, then they raised it to 5, then 10. When she retired 10+ years ago, they could rollover and accrue up to 100 days per year, and now the teachers can collect up to 120. Only one teacher that I know of has taken more than 1 week, and the teacher in question took about a month due to a kidney transplant. Heck, many nannies get 5-10 days per year and never use more than 1. What is the big deal?

Frankly, I don't understand using half days, let alone an hour or two. Either you are sick and staying home or you are working. This isn't PTO to be used for a doctor's appointment, it's sick days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Here is the very long document that explains the bill:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2015/150611/20150611_HHS2.pdf

Here is an article about it: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Montgomery-County-Paid-Sick-Leave-Bill-Clears-Important-Hurdle/

Here is what it says about accrual:
Rate gf Accrual. The earned sick and safe leave provided under
subsection .ill) must accrue at !! rate of at least 1 hour for every 30 hours
an employee works in the County, except an employer must not be
required to allow an employee to:
ill earn more than 56 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year; or
ill use more than 80 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year.

Ok, so an employee accrues 1 hour per 30 worked hours, that doesn't say that the nanny can take an hour here or there. No more than 56 hours is no more than 7 days at 8 hours each, so 1 week and 2 days for a nanny who works 5 8 hour days each week. Finally, even if the nanny can rollover days, she can't use more than 80 hours is a year, which is 2 weeks of 8 hour days. I don't see what the big deal is.

My grandmother started working at a school in the 60s with 3 sick days per year, then they raised it to 5, then 10. When she retired 10+ years ago, they could rollover and accrue up to 100 days per year, and now the teachers can collect up to 120. Only one teacher that I know of has taken more than 1 week, and the teacher in question took about a month due to a kidney transplant. Heck, many nannies get 5-10 days per year and never use more than 1. What is the big deal?

Frankly, I don't understand using half days, let alone an hour or two. Either you are sick and staying home or you are working. This isn't PTO to be used for a doctor's appointment, it's sick days.

Oh, my grandmother just reminded me that if someone didn't use any sick days, they got a bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Here is the very long document that explains the bill:
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2015/150611/20150611_HHS2.pdf

Here is an article about it: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Montgomery-County-Paid-Sick-Leave-Bill-Clears-Important-Hurdle/

Here is what it says about accrual:
Rate gf Accrual. The earned sick and safe leave provided under
subsection .ill) must accrue at !! rate of at least 1 hour for every 30 hours
an employee works in the County, except an employer must not be
required to allow an employee to:
ill earn more than 56 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year; or
ill use more than 80 hours of earned sick and safe leave in !!
calendar year.

Thanks, PP. This bill is worth reading. It will definitely help employees who don't have sick leave now, paid or unpaid. I doubt it will have much of an effect on nannies who already get some kind of paid sick leave.

Interestingly, it could have a negative effect on overall compensation, especially the rollover componant.

From the bill:

This bill requires an employer with more than nine employees to have a sick and safe leave policy under which an employee of the employer earns at least 1 hour of paid sick and safe leave, at the same rate and with the same benefits as the employee normally earns, for every 30 hours an employee works. An employer with nine or fewer employees, based on the average monthly number of employees during the preceding year, must have a sick and safe leave policy that provides an employee with at least 1 hour of unpaid sick and safe leave for every 30 hours an employee works. An employer is not required to allow an employee to earn or carry over more than 56 hours of earned sick and safe leave in a year or use more than 80 hours of earned sick and safe leave in a year.


This would seem to indicate that a nanny employer just has to provide 1 hour of unpaid sick and safe leave per 30 hours worked.

So, really, any nanny with paid sick time is already doing better than the bill requires.