On Monday, Senator Kamala Harris stepped out and declared herself the equalizer in regards to the gender wage gap. At the time of her official release, she issued the following tweet.
If you read through the details released on outlets like the New York Times, the Harris plan doesn’t sound too bad. We already have existing laws and she is in essence taking a hard stance on employers self reporting pay gaps. When you read into the details of the plan she outlines, the program amounts to nothing more than another government handout program. While I am certainly supportive of equal pay for women, I don’t think Harris plan will really result in equal pay, but more likely a pay cut for everyone. Let’s look into the details.
First of all, companies with 100 employees or more will be forced into obtaining a new government certification. Failure to obtain this certification will result in fines of up to 1% of their average daily profits for each percent of wage gap. She states that this could result in additional revenue for the federal government of around $180 billion over 10 years. Harris does not discuss the details of the oversight of the program which will no doubt at minimum double the size of the overseeing agency, the EEOC. In addition, the burden placed on employers to comply with this level of government oversight will come at an end cost to employees. This isn’t the biggest issue with the Harris plan however.
Down at the bottom of the Harris plan is buried another government program of paid family medical leave. The Harris proposal is 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to allow workers to care for themselves or family. American Enterprise Institute has a great calculator to help estimate the cost of such a program. If you plug in the 12 week proposal, without any waiting times, a 60% wage reimbursement and a $1,000 weekly maximum benefit, the estimated annual cost would be $69.1 billion.
Harris’ estimated $180 billion in revenue over 10 years, which is expected to decline over time as employers become compliant, comes up short of the $69.1 billion for this proposed government program. At least $511 billion short not taking into account any changes in those receiving the program or the benefit amounts. This would add $51.1 billion to the national deficit each year. Of course, I’m sure no politician is concerned about another $51.1 billion when our national debt is $22 trillion and counting. Harris certainly proved she is not concerned about our national debt based on her proposed tax plan from late last year which would increase national debt by over $3 trillion in the next decade.
This is just another example of a government program which promotes government overreach into private business. While this program does not specifically state that the government will tell you what you can and cannot pay employees, it’s certainly not far from it. What’s next, government takeover of private business so they can nationalize everything? I’m sure that is the next step in the Democrats socialist playbook.
