State’s small employers can’t survive 12 weeks of paid leave

Just because a politician says the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act will draw businesses to New Mexico doesn’t make it so. The Legislature is going to give Work Force Solutions (WSD) $36.5 million in what amounts to seed money to start the program. WSD is the same agency that paid out over $100 million in fraudulent Workers’ Compensation claims, and it has shown no remorse, never changed its procedures, and if the lack of news releases is any measure, not collected $1 from those who committed the fraud. This agency can’t handle unemployment claims; how will it handle medical leave claims? The bill is a paperwork nightmare.

A small-business employer will have to keep the job open for three months. I ran a business with 20 employees before I retired and having two key employees out at one time under this bill would have been catastrophic. It is impossible now to (find) people willing to work. What chance will a small business have finding someone who will want to work for three months knowing they will be laid off when the “regular” employee returns? Maybe they will get to collect unemployment.

California has had such a law for some time. I know someone who was employed by one of the largest highend department store chains in the country in a well-paid job. She took every minute of her paid leave and never returned to work. Because her husband needed a better job to support the family, they moved to Texas. New Mexico doesn’t have the population, the diversified employer base or the number of wealthy taxpayers California has. It won’t work as promised here.

In two years, the Legislature will be bailing this program out and, in the meantime, New Mexico will have lost more small businesses. Just as they did with cannabis, the legislators behind the NM Paid Medical Leave Act are just blowing smoke.