Businesses Call on Clinton for Details of Paid Leave 'Scheme' Funding

ashley.rae | January 12, 2016
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The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has called on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to explain how she plans on funding her paid leave proposal if elected president.

Clinton’s paid leave proposal includes up to twelve weeks of paid medical and sick leave with a two-thirds replacement wage rate.

According to Clinton, the paid leave plan will “not impose additional costs on businesses, including small businesses” and will be funded “by making the wealthiest pay their fair share—not raising taxes on working families.”

Clinton’s campaign says Clinton will “ensure that the plan is fully paid for by a combination of tax reforms impacting the most fortunate.”

The plan, however, does not include a discussion of the specific tax rate that will be imposed to fund the program or the income bracket that will be taxed to fund the program.

In response to Clinton’s proposal, the NFIB said, “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should talk to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin about what can go wrong when you pitch an expensive new entitlement program without mentioning how you’ll pay for it.” After getting the state's legislature to pass his entitlement plan, Shumlin later worked to repeal it when it was discovered tax rates would have to double in order to fund it.

NFIB says it conducted an analysis of several paid leave policies and has “predicted thousands of job losses and billions in lost economic output” as a result of a paid leave entitlement.

NFIB president Dan Danner said Clinton's "type of scheme" will harm the very people Clinton claims to want to help:

“Not every business can afford to provide every benefit and this type of scheme can hurt many of the low-wage workers whom the advocates claim to be helping. Unless we know how the Secretary plans to finance her plan then it’s not really a plan at all.  It’s a talking point.  Small business owners deserve to see a real plan.”

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