Wanted: Paid Family Leave Education

education (0.00 / 0)

Every step of the way that workers gain rights, someone will scream about how it spells the end for business. It happened when the country began to pass child labor laws in the early 20th century.

The business community predicted the sky was going to fall in California when they passed PFL, too. But the impact on business was minimal. You can see what I wrote about this in December.

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by: Juan Melli @ Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 14:34:40 PM UTC

Family Leave in My View (4.00 / 1)

This Bill , if presented in a vacuum, would not even be on the Business Community radar.

However, Lonegan, Kirschner , and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce have decided to take a stand and use this Bill to complain about New Jersey and what they perceive ( and with some justification!)  a very unfriendly business envirnonment.

The key , in my view , to understanding this bill is to look at it on its own merit. After you do that you will support this Bill.

The Bill started as a 12 week Bill . It has been reduced to 6 weeks after business complaints. The Bill was purposely made a employee only contribution bill and will only cost an employee about $33 /year.So financially it hurts neither employer or employee.

It is also only a 2/3 of your pay benefit bill with a $535 ceiling. Many people will not even be given that much. To receive the maximum you need to make $850/week which is about $21 hour. So again, you see that people are not going to be taking this benefit to " make money" or " go on vacation". The benefit also only kicks in after an employee uses up hisher own vacation or sick time.  

Kirschner himself testified that 90 % of the people who will be taking this benfit are woman who just gave birth. The Business community hates that. They want a woman back in the workplace as quick as possible. This country has traditionally forced women to make a choice between staying home with a new born and returning to a job. This is not rhetoric, this is a fact.

Is a woman who is pregnant a problem for Business. They absolutely feel it is and don't let them fool you. This attitude did not start in New Jersey but New Jersey Business now feels they will have to change while business in other states will not.

So, in short , this bill only effects business when they need to replace someone who will probably be out anyway for a short period of time.

You will see how weak the argument of Lonegan and the others really  is by listening how many times they say things like " this is the last straw" . They can't fight the Bill so they fight the Bill as " last straw".

I went longer than I wanted  here but the arguments , when kept on the Bill only, always come back in favor of the Bill.

Did I confuse you further?    

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by: firstamend07 @ Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 18:23:25 PM UTC

Thank you (0.00 / 0)

Firstamend07,

Thank you for taking the time to work through some of the intricacies and merits of PFL. I did some of my own research and found many of the same arguments and statistics you provided (that is definitely a good thing!).

I just re-read Mr. Lonegan's post , this time with a greater understanding of some of the facts and nuances. Many of his arguments are merely hyperbole, intended to scare uninformed readers (like myself this morning) into agreeing with him. This is both dangerous and frustrating. Instead of arguing facts, he is permitted to rail against a political agenda with which he disagrees. I have no problem with editorializing, it just bothers me that he is able to get away with such flagrant misrepresentations of the truth and such baseless accusations.

Again, Juan and FirstAmend thanks for the assistance.  

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by: Matt Feinstein @ Sun Mar 23, 2008 at 22:38:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Lonegan is a Phony (0.00 / 0)

Lonegan rants and raves but has few facts. He depends on people being frustrated and not having the time to research all aspects of an issue.

Lonegan is a sound bite guy who has very little substance.  

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by: firstamend07 @ Mon Mar 24, 2008 at 01:36:45 AM UTC

[ Parent ]