Take your Sick Time and Shove it!

Recently, I had lunch with a much trusted IT Consultant of ours regarding the City of Minneapolis’ new policy to mandate sick time for all people who work within the city. Our IT Consultant’s, take was, “…they can shove it, in the global economy they have just made me less competitive.” I asked her to expand on this and in essence she relayed how many of the policies put in place to “help” people really have unintended negative impacts in the real world. The way companies are supposed to work and how they truly operate is incongruent. The mandated sick time is just another way the policy makers have tried to do right, but have really just made it harder to hire a US worker.

Here is why:

1.  Globalization:

• Do domestic H1-B Visa holders or similar permit carriers qualify? The providers of their labor would say “no”.
• Sick leave is not mandated anyplace where we outsource IT.
• Contracts with most major organization who operate in Minneapolis do not pay for time %150 for OT do you think they will write new contracts for their providers to include sick time.

(There are a few assumptions taken here, but if we use history as a predicator of the future. Most providers of contract resources who work on permit do not bill for time over 40 hours and are not paid for it; if they do it is a straight time and not the 150% required for US Workers who work more than 40 hours in a work week.)

2.  Less Value & Less Profit:

• Less billable time for hiring the more expensive US Worker.
• More exposure to pay without production.
• If an organization chooses to outsource or use a lottery winning contractor on a H-1B Visa they run no exposure to this added expense and lack of billable time.

3.  Uncertainty:

• When can we use it?
• When does it go in to affect?
• May I use it for my family?
• May I use it for a “neighbor’s kid’s brother?”
• Does it count as OT or “straight” time?
• Is there a minimum number of hours required to earn it?

In her opinion the required “Sick Time Law” provides an exposure and loss of production that businesses can avoid by using less expensive non-US based options, thus increasing her competition for earning work.

Is she right or wrong? You decide….

Christian Pederson is the Founder and CEO of The Bulldog Companies – IT Consultants, Unleashed!

A Twin-Cities based technical consulting company built for today’s agile business. If you need technical people in the Twin Cities, there is no better place from whom to buy.