NYC Mayor Vetoes Paid Sick Leave Law
On June 11, 2013 by Schnader in Labor and EmploymentCity Council Vote to Override Veto Expected Soon
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has carried through with his promise to veto the paid sick leave law that the New York City Council passed last month by a 45-3 vote. In his veto message, the mayor declared, “The bill, which will impose significant new costs on employers and create a vast new bureaucracy, is bad for the city’s economy, and it will harm the very people it seeks to help . . . .”
Mayor Bloomberg predicted that some employers would cut other benefits in order to afford mandatory paid sick leave, and that enforcement would create a new bureaucracy that would cost the city millions of dollars annually. He also cited the cost advantage that mandatory paid sick leave in New York City would give to nearby locations, which compete with the city for businesses. For a description of the requirements of the NYC paid sick leave bill, see our original post here.
Given that the original bill passed with a huge margin, proponents of the measure predict that the mayor’s veto will be overridden easily and that the measure will become law. The council needs 34 votes to override a mayoral veto – 11 fewer than the votes received by the bill in the original council vote.
No date has been set as yet for the council vote to override.