NJ.com/The Star-Ledger has recently had a couple of pieces railing against “boat checks,” payments to retiring public employees for sick time accumulated but not used over many years of employment. As this editorial points out, it can be big bucks for the favored few and it could be prevented (but won’t be until public officials face significant economic consequences or jail time, but that’s for another rant.)
The same publications push for mandating paid sick leave (see here for example).1 Sick leave should only be used when the employee is sick (allowing for medical appointments and family members as well.) My position is that if the government is going to mandate that employers provide this benefit, it should punish employees who treat it as a vacation day that they can take without notice.
Sick leave is like insurance; everyone wants to get more in benefits than she pays in. No one wants to work more days than his colleagues just because he didn’t get sick.
Jay Bohn
October 5, 2023
- I wonder if the Star-Ledger mandates that benefit for the people who delivers its newspapers in its contracts with the distribution agent. Probably not. ↩︎