why<\/em> I didn’t hire.”<\/p>\n“Companies get good at working their way around these regulations,” Calder responds.<\/p>\n
But government officials assume their laws will do what they’re supposed to do. They also are eager to please special interest groups.<\/p>\n
The chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission went before cameras to brag that this law has support from “businesses, faith, health, women’s and civil rights organizations!”<\/p>\n
So what?<\/p>\n
“Activists think of the short-term effects of the law,” says Calder. “It’s pretty easy to get behind a superficial reading of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and think that it could be a good idea.”<\/p>\n
“The momentum is always for more rules,” I say.<\/p>\n
“Oftentimes there’s guidance issued many years after the fact,” says Calder. “This is probably just the beginning.”<\/p>\n
The growing number of rules kills jobs in several ways.<\/p>\n
Since the rule applies to companies with 15 or more employees, it’s an incentive for companies with 14 employees to stay small.<\/p>\n
“You get penalized as you grow,” says Calder.<\/p>\n
“Without a law like this, who would hire someone like you?” I ask. “You might have more medical problems. You’re going to leave, for weeks at least.”<\/p>\n
“Pregnant workers bring a lot to the table,” she responds. “Many employers see that. But when you create a one-size-fits-all policy like this, it starts to raise many employers’ concerns.”<\/p>\n
I ask: “The Cato Institute should have the right to fire you because you got pregnant?”<\/p>\n
“I think they should,” responds Calder. “Because I want people like me to be able to be hired in the first place.”<\/p>\n
Exactly. I’m a stutterer. I didn’t have my stuttering under control when I applied for my first job. Had the ADA existed then, I could have demanded special accommodation. “Disability lawyers” would have been ready to protect my “rights.”<\/p>\n
No TV station would have risked hiring me! I would have never gotten a chance.<\/p>\n
Now the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act will kill opportunities for women.<\/p>\n
COPYRIGHT 2023 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.<\/strong><\/p>\n