By Brian Hammons, Hammons Black Walnuts
My small company in rural Missouri (65 current employees) is faced with implementing a “sick pay” plan.
For years, we’ve provided a PTO plan that’s very generous, from two to four weeks, to all full-time employees after one year of service. That’s much more than Prop A requires, and it can be used for sick time, vacations, or personal time – much more flexible and fair to all.
We do employ several seasonal employees for a few weeks during the fall, plus some part-time workers in our retail store, and will now have to administer a complicated sick pay plan for them.
While the cost is a challenge, on top of the higher minimum wage, the administrative burden with liability potential provides the greatest challenge – as it does for most small employers. We’re trying to decide how to deal with it all and how it may impact our ability to hire workers on a seasonal or part-time basis, as well as how it may impact our PTO plan for everyone else.
