SALISBURY, Md.- After a lengthy battle and numerous set backs, including vetoes by Gov. Larry Hogan, the state of Maryland now has a new paid sick leave policy in effect.
The bill is called the Healthy Working Families Act, and it requires employers with 15 or more workers to give them paid time off if they get sick.
Most employers already provide paid sick leave to employees. However, analysts say roughly 700,000 working Marylanders who didn't have time off before will benefit from the bill.
The new piece of legislature is worrying some business owners in Wicomico County, including Ron Boltz who is the president of Alarm Engineering in Salisbury.
His business employs more than 30 people and has offered paid sick leave since the start. But it's the record keeping work that comes along with this new law that add expenses to his business.
"We've been providing paid leave all along, but the new record keeping requirements and the administration requirements are going to impose a burden and a cost on us," Boltz said.
The added administrative level worries other businesses, including the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce.
"It's hurtful to businesses, it costs businesses money, it keeps businesses in Maryland from hiring new people, but more importantly it's going to keep businesses out of the state of Maryland," Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers said.
Chambers says it won't only hurt the businesses already up and running, but will also discourage new ones from starting.
The bill also grants the paid leave to anyone working 12 hours a week or more, which means Wicomico Public Schools will now have to give substitute teachers time off.
"It's a challenge for us because we have enough difficulty finding enough substitutes to cover classrooms when teachers are out so now that just exasperates that problem," Superintendent of Schools Donna Hanlin said.
But the bill is welcomed by others, like working and expectant mother Sarah Webb.
"It's just really beneficial and it makes me happy to know that if I get sick, I won't have to also drown in debt," Webb said.
