California’s first-in-the-nation bill requiring all employers to pay for sick leave would add $22 billion in new costs for businesses, according to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation.

Those costs include wages paid for no work and new administrative expenses.

In addition to the business cost, the Assembly Appropriations Committee (scroll to page C) projects state enforcement costs of $600,000 plus tens of millions of dollars in additional costs for providers of state-subsidized child care and In Home Support Services.

The bill’s author Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, has said health care costs would decrease and companies would benefit from lower employee turnover. She didn’t put a price tag on those savings.

The NFIB opposes the measure, AB 2716, which passed the Assembly on May 27, and must now pass the state Senate. Gov. Schwarzenegger has not said whether he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

The bill, patterned after a 2006 San Francisco ordinance, would require:

* Every business with even one employee to pay for sick leave for all employees, including part-time and seasonal workers

* An employee starts earning sick time after seven days of work and can be used after 90 days on the job.

* The employee earns a minimum of one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.

* Businesses with fewer than 10 employees must allow workers to take 40 hours of sick time per year; those with more employees must give 72 hours.

* Unused sick leave rolls over for use in future years.

* Employees can use the leave not only for personal illness but to take care of a sick relative or “another designated person.”

The bill, sponsored by the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO and California ACORN, would exempt unionized construction companies.

Ma said the measure would provide sick leave for an additional 5 million California workers. “It’s a win-win for workers and employers alike and is an important part of maintaining a healthy economy here in California.”

Mike Belote of the California Employment Law Council said no one argues that paid sick leave isn’t a good thing, but he questioned whether the state should put new costs on businesses at a time when Nevada is offering California businesses tax incentives to relocate and other countries are beckoning them with lower labor costs.

“It’s an amazingly expensive bill,” Belote said.

NFIB State Director John Kabateck was more blunt, noting that the day the Assembly passed AB 2716 was California Small Business Day at the State Capitol. “Legislators had the gall to vote for a massive small-business mandate …by supporting a multi-billion-dollar job-killing (bill), then walked across the street to proclaim their undying support for the very businesses they just crushed.”

More info on Ohio issue 4: mandatory sick pay.