FAMILY Leave Act Proposal

Members of Congress have proposed federal legislation that would mandate paid leave for employees on a nationwide basis. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed paid leave requirements for employees of small business owners. However, those leave requirements were limited and temporary—and were allowed to expire at the end of 2020. Now, several members of Congress have introduced the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would impose paid leave requirements on all employers, regardless of size. Employers would be required to offer partially paid leave for employees dealing with (1) their own serious health condition, (2) birth or adoption of a child, (3) a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition or (4) qualifying issues related to military deployment.

We asked two professors and authors of ALM’s Tax Facts with opposing political viewpoints to share their opinions about the proposed FAMILY Act.

Below is a summary of the debate that ensued between the two professors.

Their Votes:

Bloink

Byrnes

Their Reasons:

Bloink: This type of nationwide federal paid leave requirement is long overdue. America lags far behind other developed nations when it comes to protecting our workers from unexpected issues that can arise over time. Some individual states have taken it upon themselves to impose their own state-level paid time off laws—and those have had widespread positive effects.

Byrnes: The timing of this proposal is out-of-line with our current reality. This proposal would apply to all employers across the board, requiring them to provide expensive employment benefits regardless of size or profitability. Requiring paid time off for all employees of small businesses could be enough to put those struggling businesses out of business.

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Bloink: State-level initiatives that now mandate paid time off work when an employee gets sick or must care for a sick family member have had positive effects. It's time to impose a nationwide paid sick leave law to make sure Americans are protected in the face of unexpected illness or injury. We need to face reality in this country—illness and injury don’t discriminate. They can impact any one of us without warning. Workers shouldn’t have to worry about losing their jobs if they or a family member unexpectedly have to deal with an illness. Moreover, this bill is funded through a .20% payroll tax increase—so employers won’t be left to shoulder the burdens alone.

Byrnes: Paid time off is, of course, beneficial to employees in all lines of work--but this type of relief has to be offered on a case-by-case basis, based on what the employer can actually afford to offer at the time. There have to be strict protections against abuse in place, as well. Federally mandated paid leave might help employees over the short term, but it will do more to hurt the small business owners we should be protecting over the long haul. We’re not only dealing with the cost of paying for the employee’s wages—we’re talking about business owners who need their employees at work to keep the business running.

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Bloink: Paid leave protections shouldn't only be available in the face of a global pandemic. An unexpected injury or illness in the family is no less disruptive if it's specific to the employee. We've now seen that nationwide paid leave rules are possible to implement and it's time that we expanded FFCRA-like protections outside the scope of COVID-19-related reasons.

Byrnes: 60 days of annual paid leave offers every American employer a two-month paid vacation each year. How will employers prevent abuse? The administrative burdens alone make this proposal completely unworkable.