Financing a new benefit with a payroll tax
AUGUSTA, Maine —
A coalition is pressing the Maine State Legislature to join the 11 other states that already require employers to provide paid family and medical leave.
Advocates announced their plan at the State House on Tuesday, just as a special commission that has been studying the issue issued its final report.
The goal of the paid leave plan is covering 80 or 90% of an employee's salary for 12 weeks, financing the leave with a new payroll tax, like the Social Security or unemployment insurance deductions, but around 1%, split between employers and employees.
Businesses with 15 or fewer employees would be exempt from the tax. The self-employed, eligible for the benefit, would pay only half the tax.
"The consensus of the commission is no matter where we end up, the biggest guiding star has to be simplicity, affordability, and accessibility," said Democratic Senate Assistant Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, a member of the commission.
Daughtry, who owns a Brunswick micro-brewery, called paid leave an equalizer.
She said, "This will help businesses like mine be able to not only attract but retain, quality, amazing workers."
2-year-old girl gets head stuck in cake pan
Working women would benefit the most, as 85% of caregivers are women.
Sessa Salas, Director, Peopleplace Cooperative Preschool, in Camden said, "We are the ones taking care of children in the state of Maine and in this country. It is time to take...
ALTON - Eric Sykes, the executive director of Alton Little Theater, recently took to social media to address “a narrative circulating online that Alton Little Theater is somehow an unsafe space.” ...