The new legislation will require businesses with 20 or more employees to provide 5 paid sick days to their employees

beginning April 1st 2014. This will extend to businesses with 15 or more employees on October 1st 2015. Employees must have worked for at least 4 months before being able to take sick leave, and part time will be included; Seasonal workers and work study students are excluded. In addition, the bill will require that all businesses of any size provide unpaid sick leave to their employees beginning April 1st 2014. Firms that already meet the minimum requirements of the bill will not have any additional requirements imposed upon them. The Department of Consumer Affairs will enforce the bill. Complaints must be filed to the enforcement agency. The Negotiated Agreement Will: Guarantee that all New Yorkers can take time to care for themselves and their families when ill, without fear or threat of losing employment. Offer paid sick leave to as many people as possible while protecting small businesses, and at the same time will not adversely affect New York Citys economy. Achieve an incredibly important policy change in the right way, at the right time, with the right protections for New Yorks hardworking residents and small business owners. New York City Workers Will Receive Unprecedented Protections: No New Yorker will face a threat of losing their livelihood for taking a day off work because they are sick. The bill guarantees that all New Yorkers can take time to care for themselves and their families when ill, without fear or threat of losing employment. Any businesses not required to provide paid sick leave will still be required to provide unpaid sick leave for their employees. The Negotiated Legislation is Economically Sound: The legislation takes a responsible approach and fully recognizes the importance of

maintaining New York Citys economy, especially in the wake of significant fiscal downturn and recovery. The mandate includes a trigger so that the provisions only go into effect if the economy continues its recovery, using the Federal Reserve Bank of New Yorks Coincident index, which is a measure of New York Citys economic strength. With this provision, if the economy unexpectedly worsens, this bill will be delayed from taking effect until conditions improve. By setting the start date one year in the future it gives the economy further time to recover before businesses must absorb these new costs. A Small Business-Friendly Approach to Important Policy: By phasing in over several years to firms of 15 20 employees, it gives those more vulnerable firms more time to recover from the recession and plan successfully for this adjustment. Recognizing that smaller businesses are the most fragile, the bill exempts the smallest businesses from the paid sick time costs of the bill. The bill was changed from one with aggressive enforcement to one with a legitimate complaint-driven policy. Preventing a system that could allow for excessive and unsubstantiated lawsuits against business owners, the new bill requires that complaints be filed directly to the enforcement agency. Onerous enforcement provisions such as audits, fines for incomplete record keeping and a determination a businesses had bad moral character were removed. Fines were reduced by half from $1,000 to $5,000 to $500 to $2,500.