Archive: Opinions

Barbara Lifton's praise for the new NY paid family leave law shows how little she understands economic competitiveness and what such legislation does to jobs.  Joining only four other states, NY is now imposing this burden on its employers.  

The idea that it will all be paid for by employees is bunk, you can't finance this on payments at that level and under the new law any excess in costs over the employee contributions will be paid by employers.  Families having revolving foster children every year could get 12 weeks of paid leave annually.  Combine this with the new minimum wage law, the new federal requirements to pay overtime to managers, and you have a real inducement for employers to move jobs to job friendly states like TX, NC, and SC.

It would be nice if our legislators actually read the laws they pass and thought about the consequences of making NY a high cost state in which to do business.

The job that is lost may be yours.

Henry Kramer
Ithaca, NY
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