>are they charging you for the benefit of paid leave now?

I couldn't find anything that said when payments started, so I looked at my paystub and, yes, at least I'm being charged now. A quick look at the math shows me getting hit for 0.58% of my check, so for a $1000 check, I'd get charged $5.80.

>If I exhaust those, my private short term leave insurance kicks in which is much, much cheaper than the tax they are imposing for this benefit.

While I was digging for the payment info, I came across info on Voluntary Plans. Quick version is that an employer has to provide something equivalent to PFML. If they want to opt out of the government plan, they have to submit their own equivalent plan and have that approved. If it doesn't do the same job as PFML, it, at least should, be denied. At the end of the day, this comes down to having your employer look in to it. Now, as per my grandmother raping comment, I don't trust a business to lift one finger that it doesn't have to, regardless of how much it would save their workers. But I've been wrong before. Maybe ask your payroll, HR department, or union shop steward if there are any plans to opt out of the plan. If they won't... well look at it like this. It's not terribly expensive, and you're covered a bit more if absolutely everything goes down the toilet.