Republican senate candidate Mike McFadden on Wednesday released details of a plan he said will help working families balance work and child-rearing responsibilities.
The plan is based on proposals formulated by the Young Guns Network, a national Republican group with ties to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
The Sunfish Lake investment banker is running against Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat.
McFadden's plan calls for allowing hourly workers to opt for time off from work instead of being paid overtime. It also calls for expanding the child tax credit for middle-class families by offering a larger credit amount in the year of a child's birth.
"Federal policies should support families' working and child care decisions," McFadden said in a statement. "Through these flexible policies, we can help the American family and the American economy thrive."
The Young Guns Network in its proposal said the the Fair Labor Standards Act would need to be reformed, with tweaks to classification of hourly and salaried workers. The group argues that current labor classification rules are confusing for employers.
McFadden's proposal would also consolidate tax credits for early child care based on income.
In a statement, Franken campaign spokeswoman Alexandra Fetissoff criticized McFadden's plan.
"Senator Franken has been working hard on behalf of Minnesota families for five-plus years and now that we're 20 days out from the election, investment banker Mike McFadden has suddenly decided to offer token specifics on these issues," Fetissoff said. "Minnesotans cannot trust a candidate who says he wants to help working families but doesn't bother to do something as fundamental as provide health insurance to his own [campaign] employees."
McFadden campaign spokeswoman Becky Alery dismissed the charge about healthcare coverege for campaign employees calling it "a political attack" that ignored McFadden's proposal.
The issue emerged last summer and Tom Erickson, McFadden's deputy campaign manager, said then: "We compensate our employees in a way that allows them to purchase their own insurance plans that fit their needs."
