The Washington Post editorial board came out in strong opposition to the D.C. council’s latest paid leave initiative.
The newspaper’s editorial board called the proposed program to establish universal paid leave in the city, funded by another payroll tax on businesses, unrealistic and questioned the city’s ability to handle the program.
“D.C. Council members seem to feel there is no limit to the demands they can make on companies that try to do business in the city,” the board wrote.
Members of the D.C. city council introduced legislation last week that would force businesses in the city to offer workers up to 16 weeks of paid time off to care for a new born baby or a sick relative, to recover from an illness, or recuperate after a military deployment.
The paid leave plan would be funded by a new payroll tax on all businesses, regardless of size, in the city.
According to the proposed law, business owners would pay into a Family and Medical Leave Fund based on the salaries of their employees. Companies that employ high salary-earners would pay one percent of the salaries of employees who earn more than $150,000, while lower income employers would pay around 0,5 percent of each employee’s salary.
Some other states across the country have paid leave programs similar to the one being proposed in D.C., but none of them even come close to matching the benefits that D.C. politicians want to give workers, at the expense of business owners.
California and New Jersey offer six weeks of paid leave, less than half of the proposed 16 in D.C., and under the programs in these states, workers only receive upto 55 percent of their weekly wages. The D.C. Council proposal would offer workers 100 percent of their salaries while not working.
“Why should a company that already offers a range of leave options (vacation, sick time, short- or long-term disability insurance) be required to pay into this fund?” the Post board asked. “Won’t that induce companies to cut back on pay and other benefits or just move to Virginia or Maryland?”
Members of the business community echoed the Post board’s sentiment.
Dave Oberting, a Republican candidate for D.C. Council and executive director of the Economic Growth DC Foundation told The Daily Caller News Foundation businesses should decide what benefits they offer, not the government.
“The authors of this bill live in an economic fantasy land if they think they can continue to pile cost after cost upon small businesses and encounter no negative repercussions for workers. Talk about voodoo economics,” he said.
At least one WaPo writer didn’t exactly fall in line with the editorial board’s stance, though.
Petula Dvorak, a columnist at the paper, called the plan “amazing” and said it is “generous and long overdue.”
“Legislated humanity,” she wrote. “Paid family leave is not a luxury or socialism; it’s the norm across the globe — except in the United States.”
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