Seattle Councilmember Gonzalez actively trying to destroy businesses

City of Seattle Councilmember M. Lorena González really, truly, deeply doesn’t care about businesses in Seattle. And given the details of her latest ridiculous plan, I’m not sure she cares that much for workers, either.

RELATED: Business owner: Seattle is ‘way past’ the point of affordability

González unveiled a radical and costly proposal this week concerning, in part, forced paid parental leave. Per KIRO 7, the plan would:

• Require all employers in Seattle to offer employees up to 26 weeks of paid family leave in the event of birth, adoption, or caring for a sick family member.
• Require that employees would get 100 percent of their wages up to $1,000 a week.
• Mandate up to 12 weeks of paid sick leave for workers.
• The plan would be paid for by contributions from the employer and employees.
• Self-employed workers could also opt-in to the program.

This could be potentially catastrophic to certain businesses and, beyond that, it’s just plain unfair to employees.

The proposal would cover all businesses and all employees. The corner store that struggles to get by as it is? They’d not just be required to cover 26 weeks’ worth of costs for an employee who chooses to get pregnant, they’d likely have to hire another temporary worker to cover the shift and force other low-wage workers to contribute to the plan. Imagine, if you would, the worker struggling to pay rent that just went up, due to another González-backed policy, looking at an even further depleted paycheck to pay for someone choosing to take time off. And imagine this happening to more than one worker at a time.

Politicians like González seem to make no distinction between a small, family-owned business and Amazon.com. She seems to legitimately think ill of business owners. She pictures your typical business owner as greedy; as hoarding profits they refuse to put back into the work force.

But, she’s doing this for a higher cause. She says it tackles gender equity and businesses actually want it. Both are interesting points.

I’m glad González is interested in tackling the gender wage gap, particularly since, when I looked into her office using her own ground rules, she was the Council’s worst offender. I’m also glad she’s conceding that, in large part, the gender wage gap isn’t a result of workplace sexism but a result of women (usually voluntarily) leaving the workplace to choose to care for their children. Too often, the talking point is that sexism is rampant and a leading driver of the wage gap. It’s not. Yes, sexism exists, but it’s not a leading driver of the current wage gap. González should be lauded for helping dismiss a radical feminist talking point.

But she should get some push-back on this claim that businesses want this particular policy. It’s misleading, at best. González cites a 2017 survey that asked about the concept of a universal paid family-leave program, and as the survey noted, “intensity of feeling is muted with only a third strongly supporting the concept.” And, by the way, the particular question didn’t include all the details of González’s plan.

There’s no doubt that paid maternity and paternity leave is a great perk and you’ll attract a better candidate pool by offering it. But that should be up to the business, not local politicians looking to leave their ideological footprint. You have businesses out there, right now, who González says support paid leave. Great. Let them institute if they can afford it.

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