By Alicia Seidler, Revision Christian Counseling
I own a professional counseling company in Saint Louis. All 15 of my staff are W2, commission based. I have been very thoughtful in providing for my staff in offering health insurance, paying for short-term disability, and IRA with company match, all while giving them a very generous compensation split. I want to give as much money back to them as possible.
They enjoy commission-based work – getting to control their own schedules, control when they schedule off, and ultimately, control how much money they make. I insure them for the big things (surgery, accident or illness that would take them out of work for a while) and they personally save for vacation time and illness. They like the autonomy.
Starting May 1, Proposition A will require businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees. As a business, I cannot afford sick leave. I am now faced with changing the split (meaning less money to my staff every month) or closing. If I change nothing, but pay out sick leave at my staff’s current hourly rate, I will go out of business. I have been open for 13 years, even making it through the COVID years.
When I explained the changes to my staff, they asked if they could opt out. None of them wanted me to act as their savings account. They like planning for that themselves.
Sick leave is generally a good idea for salaried employees, but it is an awful idea for commission-based work. It does not fit the business model. My employees are happy, my retention is fantastic, and most of the time my staff can take a sick day and see those clients later in the week when they feel well again.
Sick time is NOT a hardship for us now, but it WILL be with mandated sick leave. Please pass HB 567. Please do not make business owners of commission-based work choose between less money to our staff or going out of business. Please do not try to “fix” something for us that is NOT broken.
