We spend a lot of time talking about mandate relief. Probably more than we should. But mandates are just so…costly that we are compelled to cover them.
So what is a mandate? A mandate is a law or regulation passed by the legislature that often must be implemented by local agencies with no funding from the state.
But what exactly are we talking about when we say it’s important for the State of New York? For the next few weeks, we will be posting one mandate every week day as an example of how mandates impact our businesses and local governments. They raise costs, delay projects, and complicate matters for no reason. They are…well…BURDONESOME!
We hope that you will continue to return to this page for more information (and a full list of mandates) as they are released. And we really hope that you will share it with your friends, family and colleagues.
1) Wage Theft Prevention Act. This mandate on businesses requires that they prove they are paying wages to their employees. So even though an employer provides a paystub, they still need to get an employee to sign a sheet of paper acknowledging their rate of pay. What an over reach by the state.
2) Unemployment Insurance Base Period. This mandate on businesses currently allows employees who have been fired, quit, or who have accepted and then left another job to still claim Unemployment Insurance through their original employer. This raises the $ employers must contribute to UI and thus inhibits their ability to create new jobs and employ new workers.
3) Wicks Law. This mandate on local governments requires that, pursue the use multiple contractors for public projects even though studies show Wick’s adds about 20-30% to the cost of a project. This makes public projects even more expensive and in essence, wastes taxpayer $$$.
There are 2 Comments to "Mandate of the Day (Week 1)"
How many employers recently have not paid into the state what they tell their employees they have? I have had calls from various agencies checking up on my unscrupleous employers. So, get all the employers on the same moral plane they expect employees to be on and this kind of legislation won’t be necessary. Seriously, it is overkill, of course, but too many employers have asked for it by teir practices. And,,in effect, it could cover their butts, too, should some deadbeat, know-their-rights employee want to make trouble.
The unemployemnt issue is huge, as an employer it prevents me from being able to hire new workers when I’m paying for those I shouldn’t be. For example, I fired an employee for watching pornography on the computer during working hours. The first time I caught him he was given a warning and signed a memo that if it happened again he would be fired. A few months later he was back to his old hablits and I fired him. He worked a few other jobs over the next few months and then began collecting unemployment. A year and a half after I fired him for a very good cause I am still paying for him to collect unemployment. I never fire somewhat without a very good reason, I probably am way too lenient. This is just one example of how the system works, I have several other cases. If I have to lay off an employee because of no work that is a different story.
The wage perevention act is a relatively minor issue but it does take time to print and distribute all those notices and to make sure I get back the signed copies. Every hour an employer spends on that type of mandate is an hour less we have to spend on growing our business.
Regarding the previous comment if an employer is not sending in the required payments into the state they will be found out quickly and face severe consequences, I don’t believe this is a common practice.