Virginia small businesses are safe from another employer mandate: paid family leave.
At the end of January, the Commerce and Labor Subcommittee #2 voted down a bill that would have established a paid family leave program in Virginia. Under the bill, sponsored by Del. Mark Levine, employers would have been required to pay workers up to two-thirds of their regular paycheck—up to $4,000 per month—for leave taken to care for newborn infants or sick family members. To pay for the benefit, both employers and employees would contribute 0.2 percent of the employee’s salary to a fund.
Though the program is well-intended, it ultimately would add to a laundry list of employer mandates small businesses already have to follow. Small employers already provide paid leave if they can afford it, and mandating it for those that can’t leads to tough decisions, such as job cuts or other benefit reductions.
Meanwhile, the House of Delegates passed another measure that could help small businesses get more work. The bill, sponsored by Del. Alfonso Lopez, would help streamline the certification process for small, women-owned, and minority-owned businesses so that these companies could more easily compete for state government contracts.
Last year, a similar proposal got stalled in the House of Delegates. This year, it passed 94-1 and has been sent to the Virginia Senate.
