NEW YORK - In a significant victory amid a push for paid sick time around the country, city lawmakers voted Wednesday to make businesses provide the benefit to an estimated one million workers who do not have it.

Saying they hoped that requiring sick leave in the nation's largest metropolis would set an example, City Council members positioned New York to become the most populous place to approve such a law. A mayoral veto is expected, but so is an override.



Critics say some small enterprises can't afford the benefit, and businesses resent the implication that they are forcing ailing employees to come to work and creating a public-health problem.

Government should let bosses and employees work out sick-time arrangements on their own, they say. Some restaurants, for example, have shift-switching systems instead of paid time off, partly on the premise that servers would rather not lose out on tips.



Manufacturing companies would be exempt because they're struggling, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.