ERIC provides testimony to House Ways and Means Committee
Washington, DC – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee in response to last week’s hearing titled “In Their Own Words: Paid Leave, Child Care, and an Economy that Failed Women.”
ERIC’s testimony focused on the expansive paid leave provided by many employers, particularly by large, multistate employers, to millions of workers across the country through voluntary paid leave plans. ERIC also expressed disappointment that the hearing did not discuss how to ensure that federal legislation bolsters those programs and provides relief for employers that divert valuable resources from employee benefits to pay for compliance with conflicting and burdensome state and local paid leave mandates.
“Large multistate employers, like ERIC’s members, often lead the way in offering generous paid leave benefits to their nationwide workforces,” said Aliya Robinson, Senior Vice President of Retirement and Compensation Policy at ERIC. “It is important that any paid leave legislation, whether it be at the state or federal level, not impede employers’ ability to continue offering paid leave benefits that their employees enjoy.”
ERIC urged lawmakers to ensure that any federal paid leave legislation supports employers’ continued ability to provide generous employer-funded paid leave benefits. For example, including a national exemption or safe harbor that provides relief for employers already offering voluntarily paid leave benefits.
For more information on the many issues that multistate employers face in offering paid leave benefits, read ERIC’s white paper, Paying the Way: Large Employers and the State Paid Leave Patchwork.
Click here to read ERIC’s testimony.