Delegate Eric Bromwell Opposes Bad Business Legislation

Legislation (HB 1) to require businesses with more than 15 employees to provide paid sick leave was recently approved by the House of Delegates. I voted against that bill last year, and again voted no in 2017.

There is no way around it - paid sick leave hurts small business. Small business has always been the engine of job creation. The ADP National Employment shows that in 2015, small business created almost double the new jobs compared with large business. Small business, defined as those with under 50 employees, created 75,000 jobs to the 34,000 jobs created by big business. We cannot expect small business to keep producing new jobs at the current rate if government keeps burdening it with requirements like paid sick leave.

Many have characterized paid sick leave as another nail in the coffin of small business. I agree. Only seven states and the District of Columbia offer paid sick leave (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont and Washington).

It can neither be denied, nor glossed over that passage of the paid sick leave bill will have a significant impact on small business. Based on U.S. Census data, the Department of Labor Statistics estimates that approximately 1.9 million employees work for Maryland employers with 15 or more employees.

Approximately 20,000 businesses have at least 15 employees and would be required to provide paid sick leave. Fewer than 20% of businesses in the state have 15 or more employees, however, these businesses employ 86% of the workers.

It should be obvious that when government starts chipping away at small business' bottom line the business owner tightens his/her belt. And part of that belt tightening is pulling back from hiring additional employees.

We are a part-time legislature. We each bring our own expertise and experiences to Annapolis. Having grown-up in a small, family-owned restaurant that would have been negatively impacted by this bill, I use my knowledge and my experiences to make a decision. While my parents would have loved to provide this benefit to their employees, they simply could not afford it. So, I join the Maryland Restaurant Association and others in opposing this bill. Clearly, there are many business owners in Maryland who share my opinion.