Voters in Denver, Colo., will head to the polls next week to decide whether or not the city’s employers should be required to give workers paid sick days. Among the first of its kind in the country, the contentious ballot initiative has attracted plenty of attention from restaurant owners outside of Colorado — and plenty of money, too.
The Washington-based National Restaurant Association, the formidable lobby for the nation’s eateries, has poured $100,000 into a local effort to defeat the legislation known as Initiative 300, which is on a Nov. 1 ballot. If passed, the initiative would give employees one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, capped at nine days for large businesses and five days for small ones.
Big out-of-state restaurant chains like KFC and Pizza Hut have also chipped in to the cause, making donations to a group called Keep Denver Competitive, which has raised more than $600,000 to fight the legislation through ad buys and canvassing. A competing group, Campaign for a Healthy Denver, has brought in $164,000 to support the initiative.
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