Hartford Business Journal

24 Hartford Business Journal • March 9, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com OPINION & COMMENTARY EDITOR'S TAKE Employer concerns about paid family medical leave are real W e are less than a year away from when the state's paid family and medical leave program begins to kick in with a 0.5% employee payroll tax that will fund future benefits. And more and more I'm hearing concerns from employers about how the program will impact them. Small business owners in particular, many of whom are still just learning about the law's 2019 passage, are trying to figure out how they will cope with losing some employees for as long as three month out of the year. For business owners who think there's still a chance lawmakers will reconsider the policy, forget about it. Unless a Republican wave hits Con- necticut this fall and turns the state House and Senate deep red, paid family medical leave will remain the law of the land. However, I still think there must be a willingness to reform the law, even before it kicks in. What's most concerning is that it will apply to companies with as few as one employee, allowing up to 12 weeks of paid leave for workers to care for them- selves or a family member. That's a direct attack on small businesses. Imag- ine being the owner of a seven-person firm and hav- ing two or even three highly skilled employees out on prolonged and/or unexpected absences. It's a scenario that could force a small business out of business. I'm not saying this will be the norm, but in a state already known as business unfriendly, this policy could end up being among Connecticut's most onerous small-employer man- dates, even though companies themselves aren't paying for the benefits. My solution: Exempt businesses with fewer than 50, 25 or even 10 employees from the pro- gram, at least at the outset. The Connecticut Business & Industry Associa- tion, which lobbied against the law last year, has been pushing to make the program optional for companies with 30 or fewer employees. I think that's a fair number, but lawmakers likely won't consider any reforms to the program this year, said CBIA lobbyist Eric Gjede. "People are really trying to figure this out and I think a lot of businesses are shocked that it passed [last year] in the way that it did," Gjede said, referring to the fact that the law applies to businesses of all sizes. "Companies are trying to figure out how they could make it work, or if they can make it work." Seventy-seven percent of the 356 executives polled for CBIA's 2019 "Survey of Connecticut Busi- nesses" said the paid family medical leave program would have a negative impact on their business. That's a good indicator of the jitters out there. CBIA has been pushing other tweaks to the law, including capping repeated use of the program at 35 weeks over five years, which I think is also reasonable. The state will begin collecting the mandatory 0.5% employee payroll tax on Jan. 1, 2021, while the program will begin paying out benefits a year later. Employees will be able to receive up to 95% of pay, capped at 60 times the minimum wage, which will amount to $900 weekly when the minimum wage reaches $15 per hour in 2023, CBIA said. Businesses must also pay non-wage benefits for employees on leave and there's a concern that the money raised for the program won't be enough to cover the benefits. If that happens, the program's benefits are supposed to be curtailed, but employers OTHER VOICES Gov. Lamont, CT leaders can light the way toward lower emissions By Susan Dio T he states have long been pioneers of progress in America, running experiments that help us discover solutions to our toughest challenges. Today, Con- necticut has a chance to tackle the defining is- sue of our time: climate change. Leaders in Hartford should seize the oppor- tunity and embrace a regional plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Transportation accounts for near- ly a third of all U.S. emissions. But a plan from the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) — a multi- state collaborative effort facilitated by the Georgetown Climate Cen- ter — would cap and reduce those emissions in participating states. How does it work? It uses the power of competitive markets to change behaviors and encourage in- novation, first by placing a regional cap on emissions and then requiring companies to buy or trade allowanc- es to emit up to the limit of the cap. Because the cap reduces annually, the allowance price will rise every year. This gives the certainty com- panies need to invest and develop new technologies faster and at the scale required for real progress. The proposal follows a model used in power markets known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). This highly successful policy program helped Connecticut and other states re- duce emissions from the power sector across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Since 2008, power-sector emis- sions have plummeted in RGGI states at a rate almost double the rest of the nation. Critically, GDP in these states outpaced growth elsewhere by 31% over the same decade, proving states don't have to choose between the economy or the environment. That's the power sector, but we don't need to reinvent the wheel to get the same results in transporta- tion. And because the TCI plan fol- lows RGGI's market-based approach, public servants can feel confident they're following a proven model. They'd also give the people of Connecticut a reason for optimism on climate change. While there's no doubt global carbon emissions are trending in the wrong direction, RGGI's success shows how targeted carbon pricing programs are work- ing across the region. These proposals also help sustain low carbon policies more broadly. Carbon pricing policies like RGGI and TCI help create carbon reduc- tion projects that earn the credits essential to making pricing pro- grams — like those in California and others around the world — work as designed. Like states, businesses also drive Susan Dio Greg Bordonaro, Editor

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