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Family Leave Tax

From the \”Help me, I\’m becoming a Republican!!!\” department…

N.J. may OK paid leave for family care

The gist of this legislation is that mandate employers offer employees 6 weeks of paid leave to care for newborns or sick relatives.

The liberal side of me initially thought, \”Good, it\’s about time that it was mandated that men could get time off to care for newborns…not just the mothers\”. But then I read that the way this will be paid for is a payroll deduction (read: tax).

So what this is telling me is that I\’m paying for someone else to take care of their child or relative. Wouldn\’t a better solution be to mandate employers to offer a reasonable amount of paid time off (4-6 weeks) for all employees, and the onus is on the employee to use that time wisely.

You can take that vacation to Mexico… or save that time for family leave.

So maybe that\’s only half-Republican since I\’m advocating for more vacation time. Either way, it will be interesting to see how the ideas of (and legislation for) Family Leave will play out across the US.

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6 responses to “Family Leave Tax”

  1. Explosive Bombchelle Avatar
    Explosive Bombchelle

    I knew you’d eventually come over to the light side 😉

    Reply
  2. anderswa Avatar
    anderswa

    link is dead so i can’t comment on what was in the article. and i’m not sure how i feel about this one exactly, but i think you should try thinking of it apart from your own decision not to have children. as a society, do you think we’d be better off as a whole to subsidize those who chose to spend time away (within reason) to help care for those in opening or closing chapters of life?

    Reply
  3. wadE Avatar
    wadE

    I updated the link to a search page in yahoo news, you should be able to find it (or a reasonable facsimile) there.

    but to answer your question: yes, I think we would be a better society if everyone had the same access to time away to take care of family whether it be an adoption, birth of a child, death of a family member… and also, if men and women had the same leave for children. it would eliminate some of the bias of hiring men over women… but the method of using a tax for it struck me as wrong… this should be a cost of doing business… it’s not like we all get 8 weeks of vacation… then maybe something like this wouldn’t be needed…

    Reply
  4. Explosive Bombchelle Avatar
    Explosive Bombchelle

    As someone who often deals with employee issues related to those taking advantage of the system, I see the “darker side” of these family leave benefits. The red tape associated with administering and monitoring such policies is costly. It is tough to comprehend for those os us who were “raised right” but there are actually a large number of people who know how to work these laws. It is hard to disprove a claim of a sick relative or child. Heck, I’ve seen people fake pregnancies to go out on disability. A system where we all get a fair amount of time off to attend to the needs of family, friends and ourselves is the only way to prevent these costly abuses.

    Reply
  5. anderswa Avatar
    anderswa

    good point, chelle. working at the local mini mart during my last couple of years of high school gave me a really good perspective on how people cheat the system with respect to welfare, food stamps particularly. and, i agree that we need a culture-wide assessment of work vs. rest; european system, anyone?

    Reply
  6. wadE Avatar
    wadE

    way to go Pawlenty:
    http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/19013079.html?location_refer=Homepage
    —
    The law currently allows workers to use their sick leave to take care of ill or injured children. The bill that Pawlenty vetoed would expand that to use sick leave for adult children, spouses, siblings, parents and stepparents, and grandparents.
    …
    “The bill’s application to the state would trigger additional costs at a time when our budget is already strained,” the governor said. Mandating increased costs for school districts and local governments at such a time “is unwise,” he added.
    —
    What a f-in’ dick… so the budget is more important than people… ok, got it… thanks T-Paw…

    Reply

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