Month: February 2021

The Legislature should pass House Bill 228: paid family and medical leave.

As a therapist, I see individuals with the most common postpartum complications — depression and anxiety. Insufficient support exacerbates those problems. Parents do much better if their partner can also be home with the newborn.

When I had my first son, I was attending graduate school. My husband could only take two unpaid days off work, so I mostly cared for the newborn alone. It was emotionally taxing to adjust to our new life without enough time together.

Now we’re expecting our second baby, and I don’t expect it to be easy. I work full-time, and only have about 10 personal days to use. I’ll take some unpaid leave, but we need my paycheck. My husband was laid off due to the pandemic. After minimal time off with the baby, I will have to return full-time.

It’s unrealistic to expect someone who gave birth weeks ago to be a strong employee while caring for a weeks-old baby, dealing with breastfeeding, and coping with common postpartum mental health challenges.

Our system does a disservice to families who bring new life into communities. The Legislature should establish paid family leave.

A handful of business owners and advocacy groups Wednesday testified in support of a Montana bill that would create a state run system to fund family and medical leave. Business association lobbyists oppose the proposal.

Under House Bill 228, workers and employers would contribute to a state run insurance pool that would fund up to 12 weeks of paid leave for people with a newborn baby, serious medical condition or family member with a major health issue who needs regular care.

Sponsor and Helena Democratic Rep. Moffie Funk said the proposal would strengthen Montana’s workforce by making the state a more attractive place to work.

“These can be extremely stressful times and families should not have to struggle to make ends meet or keep their job while facing these challenges,” Funk said.

While the federal Family and Medical Leave Act only requires unpaid leave from businesses with 50 or more employees, House Bill 228’s plan would require all businesses with at least $1,000 in payroll to offer paid leave.

Workers and employers would contribute equal dollars to the fund, capped at 1 percent of an employees’s wages. Total weekly benefits would be capped at $1,000 with high earners receiving a lower percent of their wages in benefits.

A legislative fiscal note estimates the program would require $2.7 million annually from the state general fund after benefits become available in 2023.

Fourteen people testified in support of House Bill 228 on Wednesday, including small business owners and representatives for the Montana Primary Care Association, AARP Montana and Montana AFL-CIO.

Brain Thompson with the Montana Chamber of Commerce and a representative for the National Federation of Independent Business spoke against the bill. Thompson said it would be too great a burden for employers.

“This bill is compulsory, and it creates a large new government program with new fees, new taxes required to be paid by Montana businesses,” Thompson said.

Proposals that would’ve created similar paid leave programs failed to gain traction in previous legislative sessions.

The House Business and Labor Committee hasn’t yet taken action on House Bill 228.

HELENA — Lawmakers on the House Business and Labor Committee heard public comment on a bill Wednesday that would create a statewide fund to pay people if they need to temporarily leave their jobs for a medical or family emergency.

Under House Bill 228, sponsored by Rep. Moffie Funk, D-Helena, employers and employees would pay into the fund, much like they currently do for workers’ compensation.

Funk said in spite of the large upfront cost to the state, the bill will pay for itself.

“We just need to have the resolve to give it some seed money for the benefit of all Montanans,” Funk said.

Supporters from small businesses and unions said the bill would help low-income families who have to make the tough decision between taking time away from work and making enough money to survive.

Heather O’Loughlin spoke in support of the bill on behalf of the Montana Budget and Policy Center, a Helena-based think tank, saying it would help businesses retain employees.

“Access to paid leave keeps workers not just attached to the workforce generally, but more likely to stay with that employer,” O’Loughlin said

Opponents to the bill raised concerns about the costs to employers and employees. The bill asks for 1% of payroll to fund the program.

If the bill passes, Montana will join nine other states with similar legislation. However, this is the third session that Funk has introduced a bill like this.

“Why don’t we take [this bill] to the floor, and let’s have a discussion amongst all of our people, and see if we can find a way of moving this forward,” Funk said. “Because we know it’s a great idea.”

A proposal that would create statewide paid medical and family leave for all employees and employers had its first hearing on Wednesday morning. The bill is similar to one that was presented in each of the last two legislative sessions.

Rep. Moffie Funk, D-Helena, presented House Bill 228, which would require employees and employers to contribute one half of one percent of the employee’s wages to go into a state fund that would then provide benefits to any person needing as many as 12 weeks off to care for a loved one, at the arrival of a new child, or to give medical leave.

“We speak frequently about building a strong workforce. Well, this bill does that,” Funk said. “It is aimed at keeping our children and grandchildren staying in Montana.”

More than a dozen people, including some small-business owners, testified in support of the bill while the Montana Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses opposed it.

Jennifer Clouse, who owns a small skin care business in Missoula, said she would love to offer her employees paid leave, but is too small.

“This sounds scary and expensive, but I have done the math, and it’s not,” she said. “I feel so strongly about this that I would pay my employer portion and my employees’ portion.”

Clouse told lawmakers that keeping great employees, offering competitive benefits and making sure they’re economically stable is worth the price.

She figured that her portion would be around $150 per month.

“That’s less than I pay to have my bathrooms cleaned,” she said.

Elisha Buchholz , the public policy coordinator at the Montana Food Bank Network, said that for families already living paycheck-to-paycheck, having to leave work to take care of a medical problem or a loved one can be the tipping point to personal disaster.

“A serious illness or a new child should not push a family into economic crisis or despair,” Buchholz said.

Brian Thompson of the Montana Chamber of Commerce said his organization was worried that it would create an entire new bureaucracy on the backs of already struggling business.

“This will be very difficult for small Montana employers,” Thompson said. He also worried about a cottage industry of professionals and advisors who will have to be hired just to make sure businesses don’t accidentally run afoul of the new law.

“We completely understand the need to take care of family,” said Ronda Wiggers of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. “But most find a way to work with their employees.”

She said that her organization is worried that if businesses pay in, but demand is too strong, there will be no payments, reduced benefits to employees or the rates will be raised.

“We just went out of our way to reduce the business equipment tax across the hall. And we’re working hard to reduce the personal income tax just a little, and this would take all of that back,” Wiggers said, referring to two other measures that lawmakers are discussing to lower taxes.

Heather O’Loughlin of the Montana Budget and Policy Center testified that the bill will actually help small businesses because, in the case of a family medical situation, the employee can take the time off and get paid while the business spends money on a temporary employee.

Even though some lawmakers appeared to have concerns about the fiscal note, Funk said the expenditure will be enough to get the program started and she believes that once in place, Montana businesses and workers will be much more stable, happy and productive.

“This is seed money,” Funk said.

The bill addresses the challenge of taking care of a loved one for medical reasons. The federal Family Medical Leave Act mandates that employers grant as much as 12 unpaid-leave weeks of job protection for a full-time employee in order to take care of a medical issue or care for a loved one. However, during that time, many employees drop out of the workforce, unable to pay bills. Many testified to the harrowing experience of loss of income. That’s where HB228 would come into play. It would provide as much as 100 percent income for as many as 12 weeks. Some employers offer this benefit, but many small businesses struggle to offer that, and struggle to keep people in the workforce.

The program would work by having employers and employees contribute as much as one-half of one percent of the wages to a large fund which would then be administered by the state. All employees would be eligible to use it for a qualifying event.

According to the fiscal note attached to the bill, which is designed to estimate costs in the future, setting up a new division under the Department of Labor during the next biennium would take more than $5.3 million and likely need to be allocated as new spending in the budget.

“I think this will be like kindergarten or full-day kindergarten,” Funk said. “It took a lot to get it passed, but now we just take it for granted.”