Duluth may be next to require paid sick leave

Brian Daugherty started out washing dishes at Grandma's Restaurant 41 years ago. He's worked just about every hourly job since. Now the company's president, he believes he has a great feel for his employees' needs.

Like them, he said he's faced every sort of adversity over the years, from being sick, to legal issues, to a death in the family. While Grandma's never offered him paid sick leave, he said the company worked with him in other ways, sometimes giving him time off, or allowing him to pick up other shifts.

"That's the culture that most restaurants have developed," he said. "They work with their people. It's how we survive, it's how we compete" in an industry with notoriously thin operating margins.

It's a culture Daugherty worries he may lose if Duluth's leaders vote to require Grandma's and other businesses to provide workers paid sick leave.

A City Council-appointed task force in Duluth has been collecting public views on the matter and researching paid sick time laws around the country. Seven states now require it, in addition to dozens of cities and counties. Paid leave ordinances took hold recently in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Like the Twin Cities, Duluth business owners are divided on the issue.

Daugherty argues to keep the status quo, a voluntary policy where businesses can work with their employees to give them the time off they need in a way that's economically sustainable. Two-thirds of his 640 employees are 24 or younger. To them, he said, the most important benefit he offers is a free meal.

"I spend a lot of money on employee meals every year. It is an important benefit for my demographic," he said. "I don't want to lose it. I don't want to be told what to do and how to spend my money, because it might be detrimental to my business, and my customers and my employees."

But just down the street, another well-known Canal Park eatery has taken a different approach. Northern Waters Smokehaus, locally famous for its smoked fish, has offered paid sick time off to its roughly 70 employees for the past six years.

"From our perspective, it's just a very smart business decision," said co-owner Lynn Goerdt. "And it has shown to impact recruitment and retention of employees. And maintain healthier employees. It just makes sense."

An estimated 46 percent of workers in Duluth do not have access to paid sick time off, according to research from the Institute for Women's Policy Research. And those who earn the least are most likely not to have the benefit.

That's why Goerdt said she's such a strong backer of a Duluth paid sick time ordinance. "To me it's a no-brainer that it just needs to happen, because right now it isn't happening, and if it's just up to employers, which is the way it is right now, it's not happening."

Earlier this year, the city's paid leave task force held nine listening sessions to gather feedback on whether Duluth should guarantee paid sick time off, and if so, what that policy should look like.

"One of the things that has struck all of us are some of those stories you don't really think of, said Laura Weintraub, CEO of Aimclear, a Duluth marketing agency, and co-chair of the task force. For example, "having an older child stay home with a younger child, so everyone misses school, so mom can go to work and get a paycheck."

But Weintraub said the group has also heard from many business owners who care about their employees.

"They want to find a way to work on this," she said. "Whether they want an ordinance is a different question. Everyone wants to do right by everyone else, it's just a matter of how we get there."

The panel has laid out a series of options, ranging from no ordinance to strict mandates for earned sick and safe time coverage. At a public meeting to get feedback on those options last week, some argued the city's reputation was at stake. "We feel it is important for Duluth to be seen as a business-friendly community that embraces economic development and growth," said Dave Jensch, manager of Duluth TV station KBJR and chair of the Duluth Greater Downtown Council board.

"We've watched as the rigid mandates in Minneapolis and St. Paul have divided the community," he added.

Task force members insist they will not cut and paste the Minneapolis or St. Paul ordinances into Duluth. But they are paying close attention to the debates there, including ongoing litigation over the Minneapolis law.

Others, including Marsha Hystead, a partner in the marketing firm Hailey Sault, argue Duluth should follow in the footsteps of the Twin Cities.

"We are trying to attract creative talent to Duluth," she said. "People want to make their life here. This is an exploding community right now. But I have to tell you, if we don't step up as a community and say people do deserve to have these sick days, it will affect people wanting to live in our community."

If a paid sick and safe leave ordinance is ultimately passed in Duluth, business leaders asked the task force to give businesses time to prepare for the law before it goes into effect.

"Build in some opportunity for people to discern what this may mean for their business," said Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce President David Ross. Duluth residents have another chance to weigh in on the issue at a public meeting Wednesday afternoonat Duluth City Hall, and a final meeting July 27 at Community Action in Duluth.

The task force plans to present recommendations to the City Council in September. Council president Joel Sipress said he hopes to vote on the issue by the end of the year.