A legislative bill that would establish a family leave insurance program in this state is being met with near universal opposition by small-business owners, according to a recently released survey.

If passed into law, the measure would require all employers in the state, regardless of the size of their businesses, to contribute two cents per hour, up to 40 hours worked, into a paid family leave insurance fund to be run by the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I). The employer could require the employee to kick in half of the premium. In theory, at least, employees would be able to draw from this fund for up to five weeks.

A nearly unanimous 96 percent of small-business owners oppose the idea, according to results from a survey conducted by the Washington chapter of National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). Only two percent supported the idea, with the remaining two percent either not knowing enough about the issue or undecided on it.

“Paid-family-leave proposals have become the vogue feel-good thing to do in legislatures around the country,” said Carolyn Logue, NFIB/Washington state director. “Small-business owners oppose them for three reasons. First, it is unnecessary, since most employees already have the ability to use vacation or sick-leave time for any family leave. Second, because they know there is no way the fund could possibly pay for all the people who will eventually draw from it for reasons real and stretched, meaning that the initial two cents is going to shoot skyward into the stratosphere of dollars, and the bill for it will no doubt be stuck solely with small-business owners. Third, this is yet another job-killing tax in an already high-tax state, the money from which would be administered by a department that has resisted reforming itself, in order to do a better job, on the programs it runs such as workers compensation and unemployment insurance.”.