Beyond borders: Does firm‐level exposure to state and local paid sick leave mandates lead to intra‐firm spillovers?
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · 2026 · Daniel Schneider、Kristen Harknett
中文摘要
各州和地方已通过劳动标准以提高工作质量的底线,其中包括强制雇主提供带薪病假(PSL)。然而,当代的政治极化使得全国性劳动标准以及许多州的州级标准难以获得通过。既有文献考察了劳动标准如何在空间上"溢出",影响邻近地区未被劳动标准覆盖的企业、岗位和劳动者。我们论证并实证检验了"企业内部溢出效应"的可能性。我们认为,面临各州劳动标准参差不齐格局的多州经营企业,可能会依据其经营场所的地理分布,将公司的劳动用工实践与其所面临的最严格监管环境保持一致。为检验这一可能性,我们利用 The Shift Project 提供的新型雇主-雇员匹配数据,并以带薪病假为研究案例。我们发现,州和地方的带薪病假强制令会通过多州经营的雇主产生溢出,使未实施强制令地区的劳动者能够实际获得带薪病假,且这些发现在使用其他附加福利进行的安慰剂检验后依然成立。企业充当了传导渠道,使那些提高工作质量底线的地方性强制令的覆盖范围扩展到更广泛的劳动者群体。
Abstract
States and localities have passed labor standards to raise the floor on job quality, including mandating employer provision of paid sick leave (PSL). However, contemporary political polarization makes the enactment of national labor standards and of state standards in many states unlikely. Prior literature has examined how labor standards may "spill over" spatially to affect firms, jobs, and workers in nearby places who are not covered by labor standards. We motivate and empirically examine the potential for "intra-firm spillovers." We argue that multi-state firms facing a patchwork of labor standards may align company labor practices with the most stringent regulatory environments that they face given the geographic distribution of their establishments. To test this possibility, we take advantage of new employer-employee linked data from The Shift Project and focus on the case of paid sick leave. We find that state and local paid sick leave mandates spillover through multi-state employers to provide workers in places without mandates effective access to paid sick leave, and these findings survive a placebo test using other fringe benefits. Companies act as conduits through which the reach of local mandates that raise the floor on job quality are expanded to a broader set of workers.