I am a "Law and Order" candidate.  But the laws should be few.  Law is force.  We should be minimizing use of force against our citizens.  

 

When a state enacts a law, it must be prepared to enforce it.  Otherwise its laws are "nice gestrures" at best, and a joke at worst. ("Medical marijuana" exemplifies a  laughing-stock law - nobody enforces the "law" against redistributing marijuana prescribed "for healing".  The "law" turns harmless civilians into "distributors", and doctors into "dealers".)  I don't want my state to be a laughing stock.  Enforce laws that are proper; repeal all the other laws.

 

The law invades far too many aspects of employee-employer relationships.  Among adult employees, we need few, if any, laws.  Wages, overtime wages, health benefits, task distribution, retirement benefits, workplace accommodations, vacation pay, insurance coverage, and "sick days" can all be negotiated with a competent adult worker and a willing contractor.  So long as there are swift and sure penalties for fraud, and reparations for breach of contract, all parties are better off when the state butts out.

 

Big employers no longer have an advantage over workers.  Ask talented nurses - they can work anywhere, for very good pay.  Ask talented machinists, whose salaries are at record levels and still there is a shortage.  Ask employers of Untalented labor - we pay you WELL for doing average work diligently.  The greatest "laws" in the workplace are the Law of Supply and the Law of Demand.  (Look them up if you missed economics 101.)  In sum, the Free Market is the most finely-tuned mechanism for arriving at fair wages and fair benefits. 

 

A state that uses law to invade free relationships distorts fairness.  A law that "helps" a pregnant worker gain accommodations from small employers helps women slowly, at best.  Recalcitrant employers move faster when the free market is at work and women can more easily move to BETTER employers.  A more free market lets a more enlightened, highly accommodating, employer gain a talented women worker.  She will leave her stultifying, insensitive firm.  Other women, and the men who sympathize with them, will opt to work for the more accommodating employer.  And if the internal dynamics are spread, customers will buy from the more "friendly" employer;  the less accommodating one suffers.  Eventually, all but the most obstinate firms enact good policies for their pregnant workers.  This happens more speedily, and with less pain, than relying on legislation. This is "Law and Order" at its finest.  Connecticut should try it.