A8
NATION
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 15, 2019
Paid family leave bill tries to avoid
political tug of war in Legislature
As HB 2005
inches through
process, business
and labor groups
offer support
AP Photo/Richard Drew, File
By MARK MILLER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Nearly all
workers in Oregon would
gain the right to take paid
leave for family and medi-
cal reasons under a proposal
advancing through the Leg-
islature, but it likely won’t
become available until 2023.
Under House Bill 2005,
employers would have to let
an employee — provided
the employee made $1,000
or more during the current
or previous year — take up
to 18 weeks’ leave to care
for a new child or ill family
member; to deal with seri-
ous health problems, a diffi -
cult pregnancy or childbirth,
or abuse; or some combina-
tion thereof. For up to 12
weeks, plus two more for a
medical condition related to
pregnancy or childbirth, a
person could receive much
or all of their pay while on
leave.
The paid leave system
that HB 2005 sets up is sim-
ilar to workers’ compensa-
tion, with employers and
employees both contribut-
ing a fraction of wages to
a state-run insurance fund.
Workers taking family or
medical leave would apply
to the state to get their pay
while they’re away from
work.
It will be up to state offi -
cials to decide what the con-
tribution rate is, but it can’t
exceed 1% of a worker’s
wages. The employee would
contribute three-fi fths of
that amount; the employer,
two-fi fths. An employ-
ee’s contribution would
be deducted from her pay-
check, just like payments
into the workers’ benefi t
fund or a retirement savings
account.
Employers with 25 or
fewer employees wouldn’t
have to pay into the fund,
but their employees would
still be eligible to take paid
leave.
“Really, truly, we were
working to try to make sure
that every employee is cov-
ered,” said Andrea Paluso,
executive director of Family
Forward.
Paluso’s advocacy group
worked with Democratic
and Republican lawmakers,
labor unions, businesses,
and others on the paid leave
proposal. Paluso said it’s
also important to her group
that the policy is “equita-
ble,” so that it’s not only
available to higher wage
earners.
Parents need time
Under the latest ver-
sion of the proposal, work-
ers who make less than 65%
of Oregon’s average weekly
wage would be eligible for
full pay while on leave.
Workers making more than
that would get 65% of the
In this June 6, 2019, fi le photo, specialist Anthony Rinal-
di, left, and trader Fred DeMarco work on the fl oor of the
New York Stock Exchange.
Stocks post small losses;
investors look to Fed
suspected attack on two
oil tankers in the Strait
of Hormuz added more
uncertainty.
The S&P 500 index
fell 4.66 points, or 0.2%,
to 2,886.98 Friday and
ended the week with a slim
gain of 0.5%. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average
dropped 17.16 points, or
0.1%, to 26,089.61. The
Nasdaq composite slid
40.47 points, or 0.5%,
to 7,796.66. The Rus-
sell 2000 index of small
company stocks dropped
13.30 points, or 0.9%, to
1,522.50.
The major indexes are
still showing strong gains
for June — the Dow is up
5.1% and the S&P 500 is
up 4.9%. Last week, Fed-
eral Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell set off a market
rally after he signaled that
the central bank is will-
ing to cut interest rates to
help stabilize the economy
if the trade war between
Washington and Beijing
starts to slow economic
growth.
The Fed holds its next
meeting of policyholders
next week. No action on
rates is expected, but the
futures market indicates
that investors are almost
certain the Fed will cut
rates at its July meeting,
so they’ll carefully parse a
statement from the central
bank and comments from
Powell on Wednesday.
By DAMIAN J. TROISE
Associated Press
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
Nearly all workers in Oregon would gain the right to take paid leave for family and medical
reasons under a proposal advancing through the Oregon Legislature, but it likely won’t be-
come available until 2023.
average weekly wage plus
half of whatever they make
above that threshold, up to
120% of the average weekly
wage.
According to the state
Employment Department,
the average weekly wage in
Oregon is $976. It’s recal-
culated every year based on
pay fi gures throughout the
state, and it is tentatively set
to increase to $1,013.
House Majority Leader
Jennifer
Williamson,
D-Portland, has been work-
ing to pass paid leave for
years. It’s a top priority of
hers this legislative session,
and other Democratic lead-
ers are backing the effort as
well.
“Oregonians across party
and demographic lines
believe strongly that par-
ents need time away from
work to welcome a new
child, to make sure they can
care for a newborn without
going into debt, to adjust,
to bond, to heal, and to set
their kids and their families
up for success,” William-
son said. “And Oregonians
believe strongly that no per-
son should have to choose
between paying their bills
and taking care of them-
selves or a loved one.”
House Speaker Tina
Kotek said Monday, June
10, that she was “optimis-
tic” that HB 2005 would
pass even as adjournment
approaches. Senate Presi-
dent Peter Courtney is also
backing the effort, said
spokeswoman Carol Currie.
The Legislature must
conclude its business for the
year by June 30.
Williamson has received
a boost from business
groups, which are back-
ing the paid leave proposal
unveiled Tuesday. “Paid
family and medical leave is
a national trend and it was
clear that we would see leg-
islation on this issue in Ore-
gon soon,” the state’s larg-
est business group, Oregon
Business & Industry, noted
in a statement.
Several elements of the
latest proposal are soft-
ened considerably from ear-
lier versions. Most nota-
bly, implementation of the
paid leave program will be
delayed. The state would
begin collecting contribu-
tions for the insurance fund
in 2022. The soonest an
employee could take paid
leave under the new system
is 2023.
In
the
legislative
changes, contributions into
the insurance fund have
also been tweaked to favor
employers. Originally, Wil-
liamson proposed hav-
ing employers and employ-
ees pay equal amounts. As
part of a deal with Demo-
crats not to oppose a new
tax on businesses to pay for
K-12 education earlier this
spring, Oregon Business &
Industry lobbied to have the
employee pay more than the
employer in HB 2005.
“Obviously,
there
was a lot of compromise
involved,” Currie said.
For her part, Paluso said
she’s not surprised that
businesses were willing to
support a compromise plan.
“We’ve seen a lot of data that
indicates that when people
have this policy, they come
back to their jobs,” Paluso
said. “And when they come
back, they come back ready
to work.”
The proposal has back-
ing from some labor groups
as well, including the Ore-
gon AFL-CIO.
Losing valuable
employees
Not all business groups
are on board. The National
Federation of Independent
Business has opposed the
paid leave proposal from the
beginning. The small-busi-
ness lobby is concerned
about taxing businesses to
pay for the program, even
if many small businesses
are exempt, and it argues
the bill doesn’t do enough
to protect small businesses
who will lose productivity if
an employee takes extended
leave.
“There’s not a way to
craft this policy where
employers aren’t with-
out valuable employees for
certain amounts of time,”
said NFIB state Direc-
tor Anthony K. Smith. He
appreciates that the latest
version of the policy is a
compromise, but it’s not one
the entire business commu-
nity is comfortable with.
HB 2005 would make
life diffi cult for the smallest
businesses because it would
require them to let employ-
ees on leave return to the
jobs they left, Smith said,
and he thinks expecting
them to line up temporary
workers while they’re gone
isn’t realistic: “The idea that
you’re going to fi nd a quali-
fi ed person who’s willing to
do the job for just 12 weeks,
that’s the hard thing.”
The proposal has some
Republican support. Rep.
Daniel Bonham, R-The
Dalles, actually testifi ed in
support of the bill on Tues-
day, an unusual step for a
minority lawmaker with a
Democratic leader’s bill.
But when the House Rules
Committee voted to endorse
HB 2005 and send it to the
House fl oor Thursday after-
noon, June 13, it wasn’t a
unanimous vote. Rep. Sher-
rie Sprenger, R-Scio, voted
against it.
The paid leave proposal
still has signifi cant hurdles
to clear. With an estimated
price tag of $15.7 million
over the next two years, it
will need to be reviewed by
the legislative budget-writ-
ing committee, which is
already considering hun-
dreds of other requests for
state money this month.
Because HB 2005 raises
revenue, if it advances to
a fl oor vote, it will need at
least 36 representatives and
18 senators’ support to pass.
Even if it becomes law,
Smith noted that it was not
uncommon for policies like
this to undergo tweaks and
changes in the future.
NEW YORK — Stocks
ended a choppy week of
trading with modest losses
Friday as investors look
forward to getting more
clues about the direction
of interest rates.
Technology
shares
drove the declines, and
energy stocks also fell a
day after leading the mar-
ket. Some late-day gains in
banks and insurers helped
temper the market’s losses.
Investors dealt with
fresh concerns about the
impact on businesses of
the U.S. trade dispute
with China. The chip-
maker Broadcom warned
that demand for chips has
slowed because of U.S.
restrictions on sales to
Chinese technology fi rms
and hesitation among
customers to place new
orders. It shaved $2 billion
from its annual revenue
forecast.
Trading this week
was uneven as investors
swung between safe-play
holdings and riskier bets.
Stocks rose Monday but
then seesawed as investors
saw signs that the U.S. and
China won’t settle their
differences on trade any-
time soon. There is con-
cern that a protracted dis-
pute could further hurt
global economic growth
and corporate profi ts. A
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