Maine Senate President Libby Mitchell has introduced a bill to guarantee all workers in Maine paid sick time. Citing the need to curb the spread of H1N1, the bill's supporters say it would provide approximately six paid sick days annually for large businesses and three paid sick days for small businesses. But there are concerns from business groups about the costs to employers.

The bill is titled "An Act to Aid in the Prevention of the Spread of H1N1 Influenza by ensuring the Provision of Earned Paid Sick Time," and its purpose is to allow employees to take time off to care for themselves or a family member when one of them gets sick.

"What we're telling people is if they're ill, and particularly if they have fever, they should be staying at home until the fever has been gone for 24 hours," says Daniel Summers, an Augusta physician who specializes in adolescent health and pediatrics. "For people who are able to do that this is not a particularly burdensome recommendation, but for people who don't have paid sick leave and therefore are looking at some sort of financial hit if they follow that advice, they have to make a really difficult decision."

Summers says he's in favor of the state Legislature stepping in and requiring businesses to give employees paid time off. "Unless there is a legislative solution, employers may be reluctant to offer paid sick time," he says. "It is obviously going to be something that deprives them of workers and they're going to have to pay for absences and there's a significant public health consequence if people go to work, or send their kids to school, ill."

The bill would require large businesses to provide employees with a minimum of one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked. Large businesses would not be required to provide more than 52 hours of sick leave for an employee in a calendar year.

Small business employers are asked to provide employees with a minimum of one hour of paid sick time for every 80 hours worked. Small businesses would not be required to provide more than 26 hours of paid sick leave for an employee in a calendar year.

A large business is defined as a public or private employer with 25 or more employees, and a small business is a public or private employer with 24 or fewer employees.

Democratic state Senate President Libby Mitchell of Vassalboro says employers and employees share the responsibility for protecting public health. "We have crafted this bill based on our experience in talking with responsible businesses and with those folks who've been unable to take time off," she says. "This is for employees that are loyal, dedicated. You actually have to earn the sick time."

"The bill is certainly well intended -- no one wants workers to come to work sick," says Peter Gore, Vice President for Advocacy and Government Relations for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. Gore points out that not long ago, paid sick leave was the center of a two-year debate.

"When we last discussed this bill, Maine's unemployment rate wasn't 9.5 percent, and businesses across the state weren't struggling to survive in an economic downturn unlike that since the Great Depression. And I think that those things really add to the concern we have about the cost this will mandate on employers large and small."

There is currently no state that has mandated paid sick leave, but some municipalities, such as San Francisco, have. Proponents of Maine's bill have cited 2004 research saying sick employees are less productive and cost businesses approximately $255 per employee per year. And they note that sick employees can infect other employees and customers, thereby adding to costs and liability.

In its opposition, the past Maine State Chamber has estimated mandatory paid sick leave would cost businesses between $10,000 and $500,000 a year.

The Maine Chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business also opposes the bill, which was recently approved for introduction by the Legislative Council by a vote of 10-0. The bill also allows employees to take paid leave to care for themselves or family members who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.