I am a temporary employee at an insurance company. I've been a "temp" for almost two years and do not have personal or vacation hours. Until San Francisco started requiring companies to provide paid sick leave, I did not have that benefit either. If I took off work I did not get paid.

A few months ago I lost my voice for eight days. I was so sick that I didn't even want to get out of bed. I called in sick five days and was completely stressed about how I would pay bills. Five full days of lost wages is quite a lot of money, especially in a city with such high living expenses. However, because San Francisco now has a paid sick leave law, I had accrued enough time to pay for four of my sick days. I was surprised (and very relieved).

From talking with other workers I know, it seems very common for employers to punish workers who call in sick. Employers threaten them with job loss, and some have point systems in place where if you call in you lose points.

Eventually, if you lose enough points you lose your job. Forcing an unhealthy worker to come to the workplace means having that individual be unproductive at work while possibly spreading their sickness to other employees and customers.

Knowing that paid sick days are available helps relieve some stress about unexpected illness. Calling in sick to work to take care of your personal health, or the health of your children, is not something that employees should be punished for. It's great that San Francisco has acknowledged this.

It is a policy that the whole country should adopt.

What you think about mandatory paid sick leave for all workers in California depends in many cases on how you make your living. Here's how three Californians - a public official, a temporary worker and a business owner - view the question.

It is both common sense and established science that going to work or school with an infectious disease can mean transmitting it to others. Many common infectious diseases are transmitted in workplaces, schools and other public institutions through simple casual contact. These diseases include influenza, or "the flu," viral gastroenteritis, or the "stomach flu," viral meningitis and the common cold. Collectively, the burden of these infectious illnesses enormous. … For occupations such as health care workers, child care providers, and food service workers, it is critical to keep sick workers out of the workplace. Food-borne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.

A review of food-borne disease outbreaks resulting from contamination of food by food workers found that 93 percent of these outbreaks involved food workers who were ill either prior to or at the time of the outbreak. In 2005, an ill worker without paid sick day benefits at a sandwich ship in Kent County, Michigan was responsible for the illness in over 100 customers.

Of course, food industry workers with infectious diseases should not be going to work. … Unfortunately only 15 percent of workers in the food service industry have paid sick days – the lowest rate among major groups of industries, meaning that many may avoid or delay seeking care for infectious diseases.

Excerpted from testimony to Assembly Labor Committee, April 9, 2008

Alzada Knickerbocker | Sacramento

As a small business owner, I am opposed to AB 2716, which would require all employers in California – large and small – to provide paid sick leave for their employees.

When will the Legislature realize that small businesses are assets to be encouraged, not undermined? First and foremost, they provide jobs, but to do so they must stay in business. And to stay in business, they must be able to pay their bills. Right now, I provide my employees with the best pay and benefits that I can afford – period. Mandated paid sick leave, like mandated health care, is another cost that will make it more difficult for me to keep my business going. It will force me to look at other ways to make ends meet that could include adjusting wages, reducing hours and other benefits, or even laying off employees.

Being able to provide employees with benefits like paid sick leave is a good thing, but as a small business I need flexibility to work with my employees when they need time off. I can rearrange their hours or allow them to work half days in order to meet both their work and personal obligations. In most cases, I or my co-owner can – and do – fill in for employees when they are absent. This flexibility is essential in order to ensure that the work is completed without placing additional strain on other employees.

Today, California is the most expensive state in the nation for doing business. Given California's extreme financial straits and the overall state of the economy in this country, legislators should be should be spending their time developing incentives for small business, not impossible hurdles.

At minimum, instead of another mandated benefit, small business owners and employees need greater flexibility.