The title of the post is a bit misleading because the answer to the question is, at this point, unanswerable. 

In what ways do we measure success under Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave law? The number of employees who have used it? The people who didn’t get sick as a result? The overall flu rate?

Of course, that hasn’t stopped some from trying. Last week, a survey released from the Employment Policies Institute claimed that businesses have taken “labor-saving steps to adapt to the law’s costs — with consequences for employers and employees both.”

Specifically, the survey claimed that some employers “scaled back employee hours, cut wages and canceled plans to expand as a result of the law.”

But even that survey should be taken with a grain of salt since, by its own terms, it may not be “representative” of all employers. 

Unfortunately, it may be some time before we understand the full impact of Paid Sick Leave.  Even now, 20 years after the passage of the FMLA, its benefits are still being debated by employers and the government

What’s an employer to do? In some ways, stop worrying about whether the law works and instead consider lobbying the legislature to tweak the law to make it easier to comply and reduce the administrative burdens associated with the law.

One such change that has been proposed is to allow employers to calculate paid sick leave on something other than a calendar year, much like the FMLA. 

That’s a good start, but there are other solutions as well. Groups like the Connecticut Restaurant Association are focused on this too.

In the meantime, if you need a refresher on Paid Sick Leave, you can check out some prior posts here and here.