City work group explores another idea to fund paid leave in Minneapolis: a payroll tax
The work group trying to write a paid sick leave ordinance for the Minneapolis City Council had spent nearly two hours discussing the policy Monday morning when they became distracted by something completely different.
What if, rather than haggle over the details, a program similar to workers compensation was created as a way to pay for private employers to offer sick leave in Minneapolis? (Workers compensation pays for health care and time loss for injured workers through a payroll tax and deduction.)
The idea, presented as one of four ways to overlay a mandatory sick leave law with employers’ existing sick leave policies, could be “administered by the city through a payroll tax into a fund that pays for sick days for all workers in Minneapolis.”
What could have been considered an academic exercise instead received serious consideration during the meeting, even after the group’s facilitator, Luke Weisberg, concluded that the option was “potentially aspirational, but probably not gonna be appropriate for this moment.”
“This was raised by some of the small employers — for the same reasons — in terms of, ‘How do we make this more universal across the city,’” said Liz Doyle. She is the chair of the work group as well as the associate director of TakeAction Minnesota, a statewide organization with membership from labor unions and progressive groups.
While Doyle said it was outside the sick leave models adopted in other cities, it was a way to “scoop up” some of the challenges facing a Minneapolis ordinance, such as how to deal with employees who move from one employer to the next; those who work limited hours; and contract employees.
“It feels like a direction this group isn’t likely to head, but it is something I know I would support further down the road,” Doyle said.
