Skip to main content

One to Keep An Eye On: The Strong Families Act


As with many employment and labor law related cases (and bills) that are being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.  This is one to keep an eye on.


If last year was the year of minimum wage hikes and the Fight for $15 movement, perhaps this year belongs to the paid leave movement.  With one of President Donald Trump's daughters, Ivanka Trump, making paid leave a major talking point on Capitol Hill, this topic has been in the headlines over the past few months.

Recently, Republican Senator Deb Fischer and Independent Senator Angus King introduced the Strong Families Act which would provide for voluntary paid family leave.  The bill, also supported by Republican Representatives Mike Kelly and Terri Sewell would give a 25% tax credit to companies that offer between 2 and 12 weeks of paid leave.  The bill proposes covering both men and women in the workforce that need to care for a new child or sick family member.  The tax credit offered would apply only to wages at or below $72,000.00 and would be pro-rata based on the level of wage replacement.

I question whether a voluntary paid leave bill will give advocates of paid leave much of a reason to smile.  Natuarally, with a paid leave bill that is "only" voluntary, it does not give the bill the same teeth as a mandatory paid leave would provide.  However, progress is progress, right??

As some readers might recall, this proposed paid leave plan is less than the several additional weeks that had been proposed by the Trump Administration.  It is unclear if Ivanka Trump or even President Trump would throw their weight behind this bill.  However, as some have noted, an administration hungry for a legislative victory might just find this bill suitable enough to work to get passed through Congress.

Stay tuned.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more