An economic stimulus idea now gaining currency is a natural fit for the HR community.

The proposal is a payroll tax holiday, and it could be a win-win-win for workers, employers and the concept of a sustainable economy.

A payroll tax holiday would involve suspending for a year or two the federal taxes now levied to pay for Social Security and Medicare. These taxes are tied to wages, hit both employers and employees, and amount to more than 15 percent of much of the wages paid in America.

Because it’s a tax break, a payroll tax holiday appeals to Republicans. And as a means to put money in the hands of average workers, it appeals to Democrats.

Indeed, this approach to goosing the economy has found support among both camps. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the former Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration Robert Reich both have endorsed some version of the idea.

Recently, the lead commentary piece in The New Yorker magazine backed a payroll tax holiday, another signal that the notion is gaining momentum.

Fatter paychecks would put a smile on employees’ faces.

Pausing payroll taxes makes sense for employers, too. Businesses would have a lighter tax load and a happier workforce, which would get a de facto raise even amid salary cuts and pay freezes. Plus, workers are likely to spend more, stimulating the demand that companies desperately need these days.

Of course, there’s a catch to putting the kibosh on payroll taxes. It jeopardizes the funding for Social Security and Medicare.

But as Hendrik Hertzberg writes in The New Yorker, those programs are too well-entrenched to be imperiled by a payroll tax holiday. In fact, he calls for eliminating the payroll tax altogether and replacing it with taxes on things we as a society want to get away from, like pollution, oil imports and excessive consumption.

“This wouldn’t be just a tax adjustment,” Hertzberg writes. “It would be an environmental program, an anti-global-warming program, a youth-employment (and anti-crime) program, and an energy program.”

Advocacy group Get America Working! argues that shifting from payroll taxes to equivalent taxes on materials, energy and land ultimately “would create tens of millions of jobs, help the environment, and in all likelihood lead to a net tax reduction.”

Radically changing the tax structure is an ambitious goal. But as Hertzberg suggests, the economic crisis at hand opens the door to dramatic changes like eliminating what is essentially a tax on work.

HR folks could be among those saying this is change we can believe in.