Workplace Regulations: Where the Candidates Stand
Forget “Joe the Plumber” and all the banter about the candidates’ tax plans. Yes, it’s important. But what about Sen. Obama’s and Sen. McCain’s’ positions on various workplace regulations? They’re awfully important, too, and yet nobody seems to be talking about them.
Raymond Keating, chief economist for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council argues that the presidential candidates’ proposals for changing employer regulations could potentially add a huge financial burden to small businesses – even more than the tax plans everyone’s arguing about. His analysis suggests that Sen. Obama’s regulatory proposals would be far more financially burdensome to businesses than Sen. McCain’s “sketchier” outline of what regulations he would push for.
Sen. Obama, for instance, supports expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act to apply to all businesses with 25 or more employees, compared to the businesses with 50 or more employees that must adhere to it now. What’s more, Sen. Obama supports changing the labor rules to make it easier for labor unions to organize, and tying minimum wage increases to inflation. “These key measures from Obama would be anything but positive for small businesses, and therefore, the economy,” Mr. Keating writes.
Sen. McCain’s regulatory stances, however, are far murkier. He voted for the original FMLA, Mr. Keating points out, but hasn’t openly addressed it in this election. Sen. McCain’s Web site says he sponsored an initiative to make workplaces offer more flexible scheduling to employees. But otherwise he seems not to have openly advocated many of the measures Sen. Obama has that could be very costly for businesses.
Both candidates have expressed support for opening U.S. borders more to immigration but want to enforce more costly workplace verification systems, Mr. Keating adds. (View the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s side-by-side comparison of the presidential candidates’ here.)
Do you agree with Mr. Keating’s view that Sen. Obama’s regulatory proposals would be far more costly to small businesses?