NFIB opposed what amounts to an additional $800 million tax increase
BOSTON, Sept. 25, 2019 — On October 1st, Massachusetts employers will begin deducting money from their employees’ paychecks for the newly created Paid Family and Medical Leave benefit. NFIB, the leading small business association in Massachusetts, opposed the PFML legislation, regrets it’s passage and is working with its members to understand what they must do to comply.
“The money about to be subtracted from workers’ hard-earned paychecks is to fund a new paid family and medical leave program. This is not something their place of business chose to do, rather something mandated by the state of Massachusetts,” said State Director of NFIB in Massachusetts, Christopher Carlozzi. “In fact, many businesses across the Commonwealth must also contribute to this new state-run fund.”
The $800 million payroll tax is the end-result of a legislative package called the “Grand Bargain”. In 2018, legislators consolidated several ballot questions into a single bill addressing the minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, which NFIB opposed, and a sales tax holiday which the association supported.
“The originator of this new $800 million payroll tax is Raise Up Massachusetts, a special interest group that claims to represent workers,” added Carlozzi. “From the start, Raise Up wanted employees and employers to pay a tax to fund paid leave, whether the worker wanted the benefit or not.”
The ballot question eventually became a piece of legislation passed by Massachusetts lawmakers. Because of strong polling results favoring the ballot question, lawmakers were under the impression there was widespread support for paid family and medical leave.
“What those polled failed to realize was the funding for the leave program would come from their own paychecks,” said Carlozzi. “We would like to remind workers that this new tax was opposed by NFIB and the job creators it represents who didn’t agree Massachusetts should impose another one-size-fits-all mandate on businesses or their employees.”
NFIB urges all workers in the Commonwealth to carefully examine future proposals from special interest groups when policies like this appear on the ballot, keeping in mind the economic consequences for workers and small businesses.
“Massachusetts employees already face extremely high healthcare premiums, inflated energy prices, and soaring housing costs, so deducting money from worker paychecks for a benefit they may never use only makes the Commonwealth that much more unaffordable,” added Carlozzi.
CONTACT:
Christopher Carlozzi
State Director of NFIB in Massachusetts
[email protected]
