I thought it would be interesting to start a topic about the impact of the coronavirus on compensation and other employee issues. On Wednesday a new law was passed that grants paid leave for workers who need to take time off because of the virus. The law “gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of coronavirus.” The law includes part-time workers and workers in the gig economy, but excludes employees who work for companies that have more than 500 employees, which represents 48% of the American workforce. You can find more information on the law here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/upshot/coronavirus-paid-leave-guide.html

The questions that I wanted to throw for discussion are:

1) Do you think that providing paid leave to workers is the best solution to avoid unemployment and adverse impact on the economy? Is there anything else that the government could do?

2) What should companies whose employees do not qualify for the paid leave do? Are there alternatives other than mass termination?