In states around the United States, supposedly progressive legislatures are pushing mandatory employer paid sick days for employees. The city of San Francisco, CA passed legislation that began requiring employers to begin accruing paid sick days to full-time, part-time, and temporary employees in February, 2007. By my calculation, the city mandated that employers pay an additional 8.625 days to every employee each year.

Many believe that government mandated paid sick days are a good thing. I am not one of them. I believe that government entities should stop messing with the employment relationship employers have with their employees. I don't think legislators get that what they mandate in one area will usually need to be taken from another. And, legislators, many of whom have never had a real job, real responsibilities, commitments to employees, or profit and loss responsibility in a business - my local senator, as an example, whose only job as an adult has been to work for her political party - make blanket decisions that fail to consider industry, region, and individual company and workforce needs.

In the case of mandated paid sick days, here are several results I would predict.

• Paid time off (PTO) policies and opportunities will become much more difficult to offer as paid sick days will need differentiation. Why is this bad? Because PTO represents real progressive interaction between employer and employees. The purpose of a Paid Time Off (PTO) policy is to provide employees with flexible paid time off from work and to reduce unscheduled absences and the need for supervisory oversight. PTO treats employees like adults.

• Employers who are struggling and smaller employers may be forced out of business by the expense.

• Other employers may struggle to manage the costs of paying overtime expenses to provide coverage for employees off of work on paid sick days. This is one hidden cost to think about.

• Employees may, additionally, have to prove that they or family members were actually sick. This will result in higher health insurance costs, more doctor visits, and placing supervisors and Human Resources staff in the role of police.

• Marginal employees tend to skate on the edge of such policies as paid sick days, so investment of supervisory and Human Resources' time in disciplinary action may increase.

• Finally, provision of legislated paid sick days might require employers to cut back in other areas such as the amount of paid vacation time and personal time provided. Or, the combination of the expense, and the potentially more frequent marginally necessary doctor visits, could cause employers to pass to employees a higher percentage of health care costs or reduce benefits.

These are just some thoughts as the provision of paid sick days looks as if it is becoming the next minimum wage battle in legislatures nationally. I'd love to hear your thoughts, too, in comments.