Better skills what leads to better jobs, benefits

THE PROPOSED ordinance …is not a good idea for many employees and employers and, therefore, the Albuquerque economy.

Let’s start out with a summary of the dynamics of labor markets. Employers want to hire and retain qualified workers. Meanwhile, employees will be drawn to the employers who offer them the highest level of compensation. The compensation … consists of earnings, legally required fringe benefits, such as Social Security and Medicare contributions, and potentially other fringe benefits, such as health insurance, and paid vacation and sick leave. Particularly noteworthy is that larger employers — both in the private and public sectors — are more likely to offer other fringe benefits because the administrative burden of these fringe benefits can be costly for smaller employers. Still, almost twothirds of private-sector workers have some paid sick leave.

Employees have to weigh the components of the compensation package offered by different employers as there may be a trade-off between wages and fringe benefits. Because there are numerous employers who offer paid sick leave, workers who view it as an important component of their compensation should seek out the employers who offer it — even if the wage rate is lower than elsewhere. …

A particular concern has to be for lowwage workers who do not have the skills and experience that would command higher compensation. Frequently, they work for smaller businesses for which the ordinance would create a financial and administrative burden, with the resulting adverse effects noted again. Low-wage workers face many challenges, of which the absence of paid sick leave may be one. Ultimately, their problem is their low wages, for which the only solution is their acquiring the skills and experience necessary to command a higher level of compensation, permitting them to deal with sickness with or without paid sick leave. ALLEN M. PARKMAN UNM Regents’ Professor Emeritus Of Management