View From a Height

Statehouse Stasists

In a move all but guaranteed to get them into Virginia Postrel's next book, Democrats in the state Senate are pushing a bill to require businesses to give employees time off to attend their children's school events.

The law:

• Requires up to 5 hours a month, 40 hours a year
  
• Permits businesses to limit absences to 2 1/2 hour shifts
  
• Exempts farm workers, private domestics, independent contractors
  
• Exempts emergency and health care workers
  
• Allows businesses to requires parents to get a note from their principal
  
• Actually lists a variety of "school activities"
  
• Exempts companies with fewer than 10 employees
  
• Only applies to times when 10 people or more are actually working
  

Talk about micromanaging! When a law has this many exceptions, caveats, details, and exemptions, it's a pretty good sign that it's a pretty bad idea. It's a simple idea. So simple, in fact, that most adults can probably be relied on to figure out the details for themselves.

UPDATE: A couple of requests to explain myself. Here's the problem. Look at the number of caveats applied to this very simple notion. The legislature is clearly trying to capture all the contingencies that might affect the appropriateness of the law. But I can think of 5 or 10 more without breaking a sweat, and I'll bet you can, too. And I can think of social trends that could make the law either intrusive or unnecessary.

The problem with passing a law to deal with micro-issues like this is that it's entirely too easy to make a mistake, and the only way to undo it is to amend the law or repeal it. If you're looking for an imperfect solution, there are far more flexible and responsive ways to get there.