About paid sick leave. Lawmakers in six states are trying to make paid six time paid sick time our requirement. 25 of par to employees to not get paid sick days. We are asking you, should paid sick days be a federal mandate . If you want to reach out was on social media, you can tweet us. We have 35, is already on facebook. And you can always email us at urnal cspan. Org legislators step up for paid sick leave. Some pretty 9 of privatesector workers are not entitled to paid time off when they fall ill according to the bureau of labor statistics. Lowwage and parttime workers, particularly those who work at small firms or who work in restaurants, are among the least likely to get paid sixth time. To change that, democratic lawmakers and their allies in maryland, washington, and massachusetts, and cities including new york, philadelphia, and portland, or try to advance measures that would make a sixth time a legal requirement for most firms. In congress, senator tom harkin plans to reintroduce a federal paid sick leave bill this spring. Some employers contend the measure has harmed workers with company wage and increase which by prompting cuts in wages or increases. We are asking you about the federal government and if there should be a federal mandate when it comes to paid sick days. Here is how you can reach out to us, on our phone lines, all with 8202 area code. All with a 202 area code. You can tweet us cspanwj and you can always send us a facebook comment. The wall street journal included a graphic breaking down how sick week how sick leave works for workers. 75 of fulltime workers, 23 of parttime workers. It also brings a dumb but business sizes. For those 500 or more, 80 of the workers get paid sick leave. 66 for 100 to four hundred 99. If you have 99 or fewer employees, only 52 saying they get paid time off. Senator opted senator harkin wrote an oped on this. That is our topic to you. If you think government should or should not do it, please tell us why. We will go to florida, independent line. Chuck is up first. Good morning. Caller i think paid sick leave should remain a perk. Everything i do is based on production. If i am not to their producing, this company how can you possibly not go out of business if you are paying me not to do anything. That is the question in all of this. Host bob from philadelphia, pennsylvania on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Firsttime caller. I am the estimates how people think that people how people think that businesses can absorb repeated attempts to increase costs and stay in business. It is just galling. I cannot believe that lawmakers, especially guys like tom harkin, who are not stupid people, would even consider this. There are some businesses they enough to absorb these costs and ethically they should. But for the most part most businesses cannot. Mr. Harkin and other lawmakers should consider that. Host what businesses could absorbent and what businesses cantor . Caller there are large multinationals that have large income streams that obviously could. But there are many Small Businesses, such as fastfood restaurants and the like, who could not possibly do it. I think that is the difference. Host i guess one would argue why penalize those for something that everybody that happens to everyone as far as getting sick is concerned. Caller that is fine, but in a perfect utopian World Everybody would get this perk. But we do not live in a utopian world. That is the difference. Businesses that can bear the cost should ethically do that and the smaller ones who cannot, they just cannot. That is the difference. Host 8 wall street journal stores as philadelphia is one of the places pushing for this idea. Caller that is not surprising h. Host why is that . Caller i know the political mindset here. It is a feast of rules for democrats. Host that is of from philadelphia, pennsylvania. Senator harkin advocating this legislation, he is the chairman of the committee of health, labor, and pension. This from politico, sick leave is essential for the work force. As children we are taught a set of basic common courtesies to prevent the spread of disease. And as the national flu epidemic worsens, Health Experts and elected officials alike are now urging adults to do the same, advising people to stay home from work if they are ill. But the reality is that stayed home from work for several days to recuperate and recover from the flu or something worse is challenging or impossible for tens of millions of americans. 40 percent of privatesector workers have no access to paid sick days, meaning that they cannot miss a day of work without risking a days pay or even risking their job. So these hardworking people must make an impossible choice. The senator rights with that in mind, should there be a federal mandate for paid sick days . Winchester, tennessee. Democrats line, tina hello. Caller hello. I know a lot of Small Businesses may be cannot afford it. You miss todays, the third day you have the chance of losing your job. Host you probably heard some of the comments from the employers perspectives. What do you think about that and how it affects the employer in the run . Caller idas woke up and saw this on television. I think that you can afford to do it. A lot of people cannot afford to miss work. A lot of people are scared they will lose their jobs. If you work in a factory, a lot of people do not take care. There are germs. You touch with you got to touch. Host if you work, what is the policy on paid sick days where you work . Caller if you have more than three days you bring a dr. s excuse or you are not excused. Host if you are off and you are sick, you get paid . Caller no. Host expected this morning saying world is on from ohio earl is on from ohio. Caller ipad is wanted to say with all these taxes going on, people get sick and they work hard these long hours. I think there should be it federal mandate. Host tell me about your situation. How does it play out at work . Caller my situation right now is i require i have problems in my back. I to get out of checks like Social Security and medicare. Host just a reminder, if you are listening at home turn down your tvs. If you get feedback and there is the light, we want to keep people into this conversation. From twitter a position column on this from february 6 he comments on senator harkins proposal saying parker claims that greater amount of productivity is lost from workers coming to work sick than from staying home, but this is plainly nonsense. We are asking you if the federal government should mandate paid sick days. Senator harkin making a proposal. You heard some opinions on it. John from ohio, republican line. Caller this administration has the highest unemployment practically ever. And they do not seem to want to leave any block unturned to cost Small Businesses everything it possibly can. Get out of our face. It has got to stop. Every day there is a new way they want to get you for more taxes and more money. Small businesses in the midwest are barely holding on. And that is not because of people like john casey. But he has the federal government slapping him in the face of a chance they can get. It just have to stop. Host when it comes to the specific proposal for paid time off, what are your concerns about it . Caller it is the cost of doing business. Ibm is not going to have a problem with that. A small manufacturing plant of 25 people make. It costs jobs. Every time the federal government a if the costs increase you have to increase your prices or you have to start losing people. Mr. Obama does not seem to understand business. That is the problem of legislators and our government officials. None of them have been in business. That is the problem in this country. 0 host if you are a Small Business owner, feel free to do so. If you work at a place where you do not get paid sick days, give us your comments as well. The numbers will be on your screen. We had 35 postings of facebook before we posted the question. Let me read you a couple of them. Um if you want to make your fop your thoughts known on facebook, you can post there. For those of you and hanging on the line, jason will be up in illinois in a bit. But michael is up first from tennessee on the democrats line. Good morning. Caller i am a selfemployed person in national, tennessee. It amazes me the Small Business people calling in and wining. I bet when they get sick at that they take their day off and leave their work to somebody else until the get back to work. And i bet they get paid. I bet that they are not willing to give up any other profits to have happier employees. Happier employees are better workers. All the ceos, they get paid for health care and they always want to cut the lower worker out. This is horrible. This is where america is going. You leave it to the conservatives they will take away your health care, you will lose your job. This is not the america we want to live in. That is why we are going liberal. We do not want to live in fear and lose everything. We want to make things better for everyone. Host jason from illinois on the independent line. Caller good morning. When the government gets involved on these small issues the turn into big ones eventually. At the end of world war two, some companies came up with an idea that they were going to benefit their employees because they were competing for employees and they came up with this idea of providing health care instead of continually raising the wages. Now you know what we have today. You go down and the insurance you get a bill from the hospital now. It is a big vicious circle. You get a bill thats as 8,000 you owe them you do not know your Insurance Company only pays them 5,000. I might have been able to swing the five and not pay 800 per month in my insurance. Continually the government getting involved creates all these different monsters. Host what are your thoughts on amended for pay this is a critic for paid sick days specifically . Caller on paid sick days i say no. No more government mandates. If i say i am starting a grass Cutting Company tomorrow, we are all going to sign this paper and i am going to pay 3 an hour with no sick days it should be the individuals took this the individuals choice. That is really all i have to say. Host here is from politico this morning the sequester the story referred to is set to take place next friday, march 1. All next week we will look at the departments and how the sequester will affect those. The Defense Department being one of them. A story about the Defense Department in the Washington Post, some specification comes from the last column over paid sick days is what we are talking about for the next 20 minutes. This is pam from ashland, ohio on the republican line. Caller we have a Small Business, 21 families. I am particularly offended by tennessee gentlemen saying that Small Business people to not coming to work when they are sick. I do not know what model he is looking at. The bottom line is simple, if we are mandated to provide a certain amount of sick leave, you are going to lose a job. Somebody somewhere is going to be cut out of having an actual job. He referred to a happy employees. We have the trust relationship. If they are sick they do not come to work. If they are welcome to work. When you give people days that they basically look at to use, your productivity goes down. There is no model for productivity in this. Once again it is government interference and it is when the cost jobs. For some reason the opposition to looking at reality of Small Business just wont consider the option that there will be less jobs. Host what is your business . How many employees do you have . Caller 21 people. We are a contract we are insurance for a construction company. There is not any room. As insurances go up, keeping our people in good health the owners take many sacrifices. There is some kind of class warfare going on in this country that if you are productive and to invest we have significant investments. It is your name, your money, your house. Host if employee is sick, do they have to prove they are sick . Caller and no, we have good employees. Theyt not do that do not do that. We are in the heartland. This is a good work ethic area. People want to work. They want a good paid top. They know if they are sick bishop stay home. Host its Home Construction . Caller industrial. Host thank you for your perspective. Louisville, ky on our democrats line, they keep for waiting. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have a job and we do not have sick days at all. If we are sick we have to prove we are sick. I cannot come back until i had a doctors note. I could not go to work the next day, causing me to lose bonuses. I work for a small firm that is a family owned business. We do not have sick days. Host if you are sick, you did not get paid that day . Caller we get sent home, we lose our bonus money that they offer us. We are just at a loss. We have to prove we are sick. Host what size is the company . Caller we have about 19 employees. Host what kind of work is it . Caller Debt Collection . If you are sick they still want to hear causing everyone else to be sick. Host the rochester Business Journal did a survey taking a look at survey taking a look at sick days and what should be done in new york. They write that is the perspective from new york state. We are talking about a federal mandate for paid sick days. You can call the lines and give your opinion. This is kevin on the republican line. Caller i think this whole issue requires much more study. Let us get back to the basics. The whole idea of business, anything adverse to that, there should be things in place such as insurance. I think perhaps, rather than paid sick leave, maybe the employee can help some of the purposing an insurance policy in case the employee is stick is sick and the employer can receive some compensation for losses of that employee. If we can arrive at a solution that is both amicable to the employer and the employee host if the employee has more skin in the game caller absolutely. You said it right there. The minimum wage issue in which the employers always carries the cost. The administration always as we need more jobs. The entire government are taking steps that are just onesided. The employer is constantly bearing the costs, and yet they want more employment ship. Host the Seattle Times this morning has a story when it toxic materials at a waste site. The nations most contaminated cold war weapons producing facility host this is lloyd from wouldnt know, washington. Caller our company is a Small Business. We already offer personal time off. We offer about 20 days per year. The reason we do that is partly because of the competitive environment and the hightech era. I do not mind personal time off. What i would appreciate from the federal government would be could they use that as an offset on the quotes revenues of the company to bring down taxes a little bit for offering this . I would ask things like training we try to get our employees trained. They could offer that as a Tax Deduction to the company. There are some r d tax credits that the administration wants to put on Small Businesses to offer all of these programs. It would be great to get some assistance on the other side. Host you are the ceo of the company . What does the employee size . Caller 18 employees. Host could you tell me what business you are in . Caller we are in soccer tweeted we are in software development. Host use it 20 personal days, could that be used for anything . Caller it could be vacation or sick day. Host goahead. Caller the last thing i would say is this is a difficult thing in january times when revenues are difficult. A lot of ceos and president s of sMall Companies, when times are difficult, they do not get a salary. I would offer that as a comment to one of the persons calling earlier. Host mike is next in illinois on the independent line. Caller hello. I work for a company here in illinois. We have about 3000 employees. They give us five personal days per year unpaid. I believe the government is overreaching and we do not need any more government. That is all i have to say. Host you get five personal unpaid days . Give us an example, if you feel like taking time off or if you are sick you can use those days did you do not get paid for it . Caller correct. Host but he did not get penalized either . Caller no. If we do have a sick day, we do have to bring in a doctors note. That is pretty reasonable, i think. That is all i have to say. Host the employer bears all the costs because the employer bears all the profits. If you are a ceo or an employee, the topic is paid sick days. Should it be a federal mandates . We read some of beds. We have about 10 more minutes on this topic. We will go to steven from buffalo, wyoming. Republican line, hello. Caller i work in the construction industry. We are affected by weather and all kinds of stuff we do not get paid for. If somebody wants to get paid it is pure greed. They are greedy, they do not want to do something for the money they get. They just want somebody to give it to them. Lets make it a mandate. That is not right. I did not care how you look at it. Host there are some arguments about what is the value of having an employee because they cannot use the money when they and they can make other people sick. Caller i can understand keeping a position open and available. I have not worked for a company that would terminate somebody because they were sick. Last year i had a stroke. I missed a weeks work of work worth of work. Because of federal mandated insurance, i have not paid 1 cent yet of my bill. I have 12,000 worth of bills in the bank. With the federal mandated insurance, not paying a penny. Host here is a story taking a look at citizenship on the larger topic of immigration. The story goes on to say steve is up next from ohio on the democrats line. Caller i am favor in a federal mandated sickly. With respect to small employers basic the ones who have called and, they would not be affected by this law. They would be doing the right thing. The second reason is a health and safety issue. I work with local government. I see how people ask us to do things like this, to put basic standards of living for everyone and in the country. The of the level the playing field. I just think it makes common sense for Small Businesses to wan