Early last month, Washington lawyer Charles Miller presented his opposition to the District of Columbia Council against the bill that would make almost every part-time and full-time employee in the US capital entitled to 16 weeks of paid family leave to take care of an infant or an adopted child, recover from an illness, recuperate from military deployment or to care for a dying parent.
Miller, like the representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and other D.C. business groups, has expressed fears that the new bill will put the District at a disadvantage compared to Virginia and Maryland in attracting new businesses reports National Law Journal. He is the counsel of Federal City Council which represents dozens of Washington business leaders.
Another fact that Miller's group takes issue with is that the broad new benefit will be paid from a fund created by a new tax on D.C. employers. According to Washington Times, the District would use the fund to pay 100 percent of salary for workers earning up to $52,000 a year. Anyone who earns more than that are eligible for $1,000 a week and 50 percent of the rest of their income, up to $3,000 per week.
However, even as Miller and other Washington lawyers have responded publicly against the proposal, their own employers have not made their positions on the proposed legislation public yet. These law firms, of which the same lawyers are often part owners, comprise more than 30,000 lawyers and several thousands more staff.
Even then, many of these large law firms already offer generous leave benefits that often times exceed the standard lengths offamily leaves in other industries according to human resources practitioners. On average, female lawyers receive 14 weeks of paid leaves while male lawyers receive 6 weeks of paid paternity leaves.
Meanwhile, a D.C. managing partner of Reed Smith, Gary Thompson, helped draft the D.C. Council paid-leave proposal says city councilman David Grosso. Thompson also has as a probono client DC Appleseed, a non-profit organization thatsupports the paid-leave proposal. He has stated that he does notrepresent his law firm's position on the matter.
Another public hearing on the proposal will be held in February and Grosso hopes more law firms will get involved.
Only three US states have enacted paid-leave laws over the past 10 years. The D.C. legislation would double the length of any paid-leave program in the country reports Lexology. New Jersey and California in fact have maximum benefits of only six weeks partial paid leaves.
Only Maryland and Virginia residents who work for the federal government are excluded in the paid-leave proposal as the city could not compel the federal government to participate. However, these employees could opt into the system by paying a small fee.
