Title
April 3, 2013
To The President and Members of
The Council of the City of Philadelphia:
For the reasons described below, I am returning herewith to your Honorable Body as disapproved Bill No. 130004, which was passed by Council at its session on March 14, 2013.
Bill 130004, also known as the paid sick leave bill, mandates specific requirements and regulations for employers with more than five employees to provide and keep record of paid sick leave for employees. Paid sick leave for employees is a laudable goal and I recognize the effort Councilman Greenlee has put forth to build support for this legislation. However the strategy suggested in this legislation would likely result in significant losses of job opportunities for the very workers the bill is intended to help. Furthermore, imposing mandatory paid sick leave at a Municipal level as opposed to a State or National level would hurt Philadelphia's ability to compete in the regional and global marketplace.
The impact of this bill would harm our ability to attract new businesses to the city when we - in partnership with City Council - are making efforts to make it easier to do business and create jobs in Philadelphia at a time of great economic uncertainty. Between 2000 and 2012 the total number of jobs in Philadelphia decreased by about 3% or 19,800 jobs. Philadelphia's unemployment rate for December 2012 was 10.6%, which was 2.8% percentage points higher than the national rate and 2.7% percentage points higher than the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania. While we work to reverse these trends we must not create additional barriers to job creation in Philadelphia.
Earlier this year, the Mayor's Jobs Commission released a report with 15 recommendations for job-creation, a number of which call for creating incentives for, and reducing the burdens on, businesses in Philadelphia. Small businesses, which would be particularly impacted by this bill, were highlighted as a catalyst for new jo...
Click here for full text