The ever unfair and unbalanced Media Matters twists a Fox Straight News report to attack the cable network; however, a review of the MM post makes it clear that the Fox report is precisely as often advertised, fair and balanced. Mandating sick leave by all levels of government in America is a growing trend. MM seems determined to lead the way by preparing the battlespace for any and all media debate on the subject.


Fox “Straight News”: Paid Sick Leave Is An “Entitlement”

In another installment of Fox’s ongoing series bemoaning the purported job-killing effect of regulations, America’s Newsroom anchor Martha MacCallum called a new Seattle ordinance requiring paid sick leave for employees another “entitlement” that could put small businesses “under water.”

For starters, the definition of “entitlement” isn’t complex. When a government passes a law requiring an employer to provide something to a worker, said worker is “entitled” to it. What Fox’s MacCallum actually states while referring to covered workers is, “they think it’s an entitlement, which it is in this case.” (My emphasis.) Her phrasing indicates she knew precisely how she was employing the term, as opposed to MM who seeks to turn it into some kind of outlandish statement. Perhaps the White Houuse should ship them a dictionary, if they’re going to continue to do their ddirty work. They might even become less transparent at it and foolish looking. What it is – in the case where a law mandaating it is passed – is indeed an entitlement.

Without the law, there is nothing preventing an employer from offering sick paid leave, as many employers already do. That allows it to remain a negotiated benefit between employer and employee. By mandating the policy by law, especially down to businesses with as few as five employees, some employers will be forced to cut other employee benefits, as one employer states in the Fox segment – see below.

What MM also doesn’t spell out, forcing one to watch the full segment to learn it, is that some unions are seeking waivers from the policy so they can use it as leverage to extract other benefits for union employees. If it’s such a wonderful policy, why would unions seek to skirt it, while non-union workers will be forced to take it at the risk of losing other benefits? The law takes away choices for non-union employees in that sense, but not unionized ones. So much for the Left being pro-choice.

Naturally, MM trots out only studies from Left or Labor aligned groups to support their attack. You won’t find anything like this below, which you’ll find at Heritage.org. What MM consistently reveals itself to be is a propganda arm of the Democrat Party and Obama WH, looking to skew the media narrative in favor of Leftist policies. They don’t seem to care at all about any objective truth. Finally, watch the segment for yourself below and decide for yourself. Deciding for yourself seems to be the last thing the Left and MM would ever want you to do.


The vast majority (86 percent) of full-time workers are already provided paid leave, which they can use if they fall ill.Companies respond to mandated benefits by reducing cash wages. Mandatory sick leave requires workers to take less of their compensation as cash wages and more as time off, whether they want to or not.

(It) encourages irresponsible employees to game the system and dump tasks on their co-workers while still receiving full pay because they cannot be disciplined for using their leave.

This harms both co-workers and customers:

When a worker takes intermittent leave or takes off work without providing advance notice, employers may not be able to find a replacement worker in time. Instead, two-thirds of employers respond by reassigning the absent worker’s tasks to the conscientious employees still working. Workers who misuse sick leave thus force responsible co-workers to cope with a heavier workload.

Sometimes, however, jobs cannot be reassigned and replacements cannot be found on short notice. In these cases, the job goes undone–to the detriment of customers. For example, in just one month, intermittent FMLA leave use forced one Verizon office to leave over 8,900 customer calls unanswered.

Economic Effects

Abuse of the leave … would reduce productivity, thus increasing the cost of business while decreasing incentive for capital investment. This would cost jobs.

Companies would respond to higher benefit costs by reducing workers’ pay by approximately the cost of providing the benefit. Companies would spend more on leave benefits and less on wages.

Mandated benefits have many of the same labor market effects as raising taxes on workers. Therefore, Congress should not raise taxes on workers during the middle of a steep economic downturn.

Less take-home pay means less savings and less consumption in the economy, which costs jobs.