The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) released their report Wednesday on the impact of President Obama's paid leave proposal, H.R. 932.
The mandate would require employers to offer paid leave to their employees. While this might sound good in theory, the NFIB claims the possible economic outcome of this bill could be devastating.
“There’s no such thing as a free benefit,” said NFIB President and CEO Dan Danner. “This would come at a high cost to small business and will have a serious effect on jobs and the economy.”
The NFIB reports that the law would cost the country 430,000 jobs and downsize economic output by $652 billion over a 10 year period.
NFIB President and CEO Dan Danner commented on the situation:
What the advocates don’t realize is that there are millions of small businesses that don’t make a dollar if their employees aren’t there to perform a service for customers. No one gets paid, including the business owner, if customers aren’t being served.
The NFIB asserts the negatives of the plan outweigh the incentives. Employers will feel the brunt of the Obama mandate.
The research says that the direct expense of paying wages to absent workers, the lost productivity resulting from workers not working, and the increased costs for reporting and recordkeeping will hurt companies.
The NFIB claims 58 percent of job loss will be felt in the small business sector. Danner does not believe that smaller companies could handle the costs involved in this mandate.
“The question isn’t whether paid leave is a good benefit,” said Danner. “The question is whether every business can absorb the cost and whether we’d be causing more harm than good by trying to graft it onto an economy in which wages are flat and growth is slow.”