MIAMI (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio wants to give a tax break to employers who give their workers paid family leave.
The Florida senator says he will introduce his plan Friday morning when he speaks before the Values Voter Summit in Washington. He is among several GOP presidential hopefuls scheduled to address the summit, an annual gathering of social conservatives.
Under his proposal, Rubio would give businesses a 25 percent tax credit for providing at least four weeks of paid family leave. It would be limited to 12 weeks of leave and $4,000 per employee.
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Federal law allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off without losing their jobs to care for a new child, recover from illness or care for a sick family member.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton has proposed paid family leave, noting that the U.S. is among the world’s only advanced countries not to offer the benefit.
Rubio says Clinton’s approach is wrong because it would “place crippling requirements on private companies” instead of “creatively applying our free-enterprise principles.”
“Our policies should help workers, not cost them their jobs,” he says in prepared remarks.
Associated Press