“T he unemployment rate in California at the time was 12% — and critics, which included the California Chamber of Commerce, said businesses could ill afford a law that would mandate paid sick leave. Such legislation, they warned, would close businesses and cost the state more jobs.

But that is not the case, advocates say, pointing to San Francisco, which, in 2006, was the first city to mandate that employers provide sick leave. The ordinance went into effect a year later.

A 2010 survey of 727 employers and 1,194 employees conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that 6 out of every 7 employers reported no negative effect from the law. Additionally, most workers used only three sick days per year, and a quarter of workers surveyed didn’t use any sick days.”