The resolution sponsored by Beth Mason and First ward councilwoman Terry Castellano appears word for word to be lifted from one recently passed in Jersey City.
A resolution proposed by Councilwoman Beth Mason and Councilwoman Teresa Castellano proposes to enforce mandatory sick pay for businesses employing 10 or more in Hoboken. This is an egregious overreach of municipal government—one that, at a glance, seems squarely targeted at Hoboken’s bar and restaurant owners. The hospitality industry is not an office job—if someone calls in sick you don’t just sit there all day and look at an empty chair, you have to fill that spot with someone who can get the job done. The premise behind this legislation would essentially require bar and restaurant owners to pay twice for the same amount of work—once for the person who did the job, and another for the person who couldn’t make it. Meanwhile the hospitality industry is typically self-correcting. If a person misses a shift, someone covers it—then the person whose shift was covered returns the favor. Everyone gets paid for the work they do, and no one gets screwed over. In a town where the median age is increasing, bar stools are being replaced by highchairs, liquor licenses cost upwards of half a million dollars and customers can’t park, this is just another swift kick to the bottom line for Hoboken’s small businesses. Perhaps the city misses the revenue it used to get fining bars for the mess from St. Patrick’s Day house parties, so they need to make up the difference by getting into the books of an already taxed hospitality industry.In the end, what this will ultimately mean is that the 10th guy hired in a Hoboken kitchen will probably start having to look for another job—not because bar and restaurant owners are necessarily heartless, they simply can’t run their business in the face of such invasive, predatory bureaucracy.
Regards,
MASELLANOCARE
| Beth Mason is preparing to stick it to Hoboken small business. A resolution she’s sponsored with Councilwoman Terry Castellano mandates sick pay for all local businesses with ten or more employees. |
Talking Ed Note: This is classic government over regulation of the worst kind: local. It’s bad enough when remote government bureaucrats gin up business killing regulations. In this instance, Hoboken council members should be looking to identify ways to help promote Hoboken business not kill it.
