A poll of 300 small business owners across Colorado found a majority supported creating a paid family leave program, but they also were concerned about the state mandating participation.

When asked about their support for a bill to give all Coloradans 12 weeks of partially paid leave that’s working its way through the General Assembly, 64 percent supported it, 21 percent weren’t sure and 15 percent opposed it. An equal number of men and women supported the bill, according to the poll. And a majority of the smallest businesses (those with two to five employees) supported it.

The Democratic bill would give 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a newborn, receive treatment for a major illness, leave a relationship marred by domestic abuse or care for a sick family member. It would be portable from job to job, but it wouldn’t replace 100 percent of someone’s salary. The state would administer the program, and everyone would contribute toward the pool of money used to pay claims.

The survey, which was paid for by a left leaning group called the Small Business Majority, also found that many small business owners don’t offer any kind of paid parental leave. Forty-three percent said they didn’t offer maternity or paternity leave and about that same amount (44 percent) said they’ve never had an employee take an extended absence to care for a sick or dying relative.

The Small Business Majority points to those numbers as proof that Colorado needs paid family leave and that it’s generally supported by business owners who employe less than 50 people.

However, three out of the four respondents said both paid and unpaid leave creates financial strain for employers, and 45 percent of the business owners strongly agreed with a statement that read “paid family leave should not be mandated by the government, but rather decided by employers and employees reaching a mutually beneficial agreement that works.” Just 24 percent strongly disagreed with that statement.

Sixty-nine percent agreed with the idea that small businesses like theirs should be exempted from having to contribute to the pool of money used to pay family leave claims. Senate Bill 188 asks most employers to split the cost evenly with their employees.

Chesapeake Beach Consulting surveyed those 300 small business owners in Colorado between March 11 and 20. The split on political party lines was as follows: 27 percent said they were Republican, 9 percent said they leaned Republican but are unaffiliated, 18 percent called themselves simply unaffiliated, 12 percent of the unaffiliated leaned Democrat and 25 percent responded as Democrats.

The margin of error was plus or minus 5.8 percent.