Originally posted by the Connecticut Post on January 24th, 2014.

It’s that season again: Flu season. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the labor union-backed Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) chose this spell of illness to release the results of a new study on business responses to Connecticut’s first-in-the-nation state paid sick leave law.

CEPR’s study contends that concerns about the law’s negative impact on businesses were unfounded and that the law was “a non-event for employers with real benefits for covered workers.” But a close reading of the labor group’s results indicates Connecticut’s law had a greater negative impact on businesses than the authors let on.

Prior to the law’s passage in 2011, supporters argued that mandatory paid sick days would benefit workers, businesses and public health. An Employment Policies Institute survey of state employers released one year after the law took effect suggested these promises were overstated, and that some businesses had been forced to raise prices or scale back on benefits or hiring to offset the cost. Nearly 70 percent said that the law wasn’t good for business.

CEPR dismissed concerns of business owners as “anti-regulation rants.” Coverage of their study was similarly dismissive of employer concerns. For instance, the left-wing website Think Progress highlighted that only 10 percent of businesses reported seeing their payroll costs rise by more than three percent. They noted that “a large majority” of businesses reported only a “small or nonexistent increase in cost.”

Go here to read the rest of the Op-Ed.