WASHINGTON — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says she has concerns about landmark legislation approved by a D.C. Council committee to offer paid family leave to D.C. workers and says changes need to be made to the bill before it gets to her desk.
“There will have to be some concessions made for small businesses,” Bowser told reporters Wednesday after an event marking the official start of the MacMillan Park redevelopment project. “The type of tax increase that they’re talking about is really untenable for a lot of people.”
The $250 million legislation would mandate D.C. businesses provide eight weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child and up to six weeks to care for a sick relative — making it the most generous paid leave program in the nation.
The proposal is paid for by a 0.62 percent payroll tax on employers.
The paid-leave bill cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday when it handily passed the council’s “committee of the whole” on an 11-2 vote. The council will vote again in two weeks on final passage of the bill.
In additional to the tax impact on small businesses, council members Jack Evans and Yvette Alexander, who voted against the measure, also raised concerns about most of the generated revenue benefiting residents of neighboring states where most D.C. workers actually live.
“It’s always difficult to get to a happy medium,” council member Kenyan McDuffie, who supported the measure, told reporters. “The underlying principle of supporting working people, supporting families — that to me speaks to our value system here in the District of Columbia, and I support that.”
WTOP’s Jack Moore contributed to this report.
