Family leave:

BY EARL HALL

The Legislature is now considering a paid family-leave act. Giving 10 weeks' paid family leave may appear appropriate, when it is actually an inappropriate gift. It reeks of unintended consequences that would be patently devastating to the small-business owner. Small businesses pay the salaries of the majority of the workers in the state. If the bill is passed, lawmakers will be biting the hand that feeds them.

As things stand today, the percentage of our work force genuinely in need of extended time off for family care is very small, and I have never heard of an employee being denied time off or flex-time accommoda tions by a small business if that employee had a legitimate medical need for himself or someone in his family.

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

The paid family-leave act would affect small business more than big business or government entities for many reasons. Every employee in a small business is a key person. The act is a carrot on a stick that will surely tempt visions of vacation in the minds of many employees. The consequential disruption to production and the normal conduct of business can be fatal to small businesses. When we consider that the small businesses of New Jersey contribute the largest share of wealth and salaries to the workers of the state, we can imagine the destructive effect of increasing the cost of a business' output by about 20 percent. Through disruption, the bill weakens a business' ability to meet its deadlines by tempting its employees to find an excuse to become unproduc tive for one-fifth of the year by encouraging employees to reduce their availability for work.

Even though small businesses employ the largest percentage of New Jersey's work force, the cost to small businesses to comply with current regulatory mandates per employee is much higher than the cost to large firms. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, small firms with 20 or fewer workers spend nearly $7,000 per employee each and every year just to comply with government regulations and mandates.

PAID LEAVE IS A JOB- KILLER A paid family-leave mandate sends a message to employers nationwide that New Jersey is not a good place for employers to operate. Some businesses are already voting with their feet and closing their doors in this state. I know of five that have left my area.

This out-migration was reported by the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Center for Government Service, in its Nov. 14, 2006, presentation to the New Jersey League of Municipalities' annual conference. It said, for example, "Every county [in New Jersey] has experienced net out- migration to other states."

It is human nature to take advantage of the weakest. It is easy for lawmakers to be tempted to descend on the weakest in the business world. Small businesses are easy targets, because they have the least ability to withstand the onslaught of mandates that come down from the heights of government. I hope that our lawmakers will resist the temptation to prey on the small-business community through paid family- leave legislation.

At best, small businesses enjoy a fragile success, even though, in many cases, they support large businesses by producing goods and services more economically. Small businesses strengthen our economy by providing outsources for big business. As it weakens small business, the legislation will weaken our economy, and we are only as strong as our weakest link.

New Jersey should not be one of the few states to adopt paid family leave. Historically, none of these types of schemes ever paid for themselves. New Jersey employers will ultimately bear the burden in terms of direct costs, the hiring of replacement workers, the loss of productivity and the loss of jobs to competitors in other states.

Creating paid family leave will add another expense to be plucked out of the pockets of the wage earners and business people of New Jersey.

I urge our state's lawmak ers to vote against paid family leave. It is unjust and unconscionable.

The current system just ain't "broke."



Earl Hall is chairman of the Leadership Council, National Federation of Independent Business-New Jersey, and director of the Northern Burlington Regional Chamber of Commerce.