County Council approves nation-leading paid parental leave program

Starting next year, King County employees who welcome a new child will have 12 weeks of paid leave to stay home with their families. The Metropolitan King County Council gave its approval to legislation that will create a program providing certain County employees with paid parental leave to run concurrently with unpaid federal and state family and medical leave.

“It is past time that the United States join the ranks of every single other developed nation in the world, and ensure that new moms and dads have an opportunity to bond with their child without sacrificing the very wages needed to support a family,” said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, sponsor of the legislation. 

“Paid parental leave is not only the right thing to do for parents and kids, but as the private sector has demonstrated, it’s also fiscally responsible as it aids in recruitment and retention of valuable employees. As one of the top ten employers in the State of Washington, King County has an obligation to lead and be a model employer.” 

The adopted legislation grew out of a motion adopted by the Council this past spring, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Dembowski, Gossett and Hague, declaring that it is county policy to establish a paid family leave program for King County employees. The motion also requested the Executive develop a work plan and recommendations for implementing a paid parental leave program along with a cost analysis of the potential financial impact of the program. The Executive sent a cost-benefit analysis and a recommendation to the Council in September and followed up with a work plan and proposed legislation in November.

The legislation directs the creation of a one-year pilot project providing paid parental leave for certain county employees. Those who can participate include both employees who are not represented by unions and represented employees whose unions have agreed to the terms of the program. To be eligible for the program, one of the following must occur in 2016:

•  The birth of a child,
• The adoption of a child, or,
• The foster-to-adopt placement of a child.  

The employee will receive their regular pay for the length of the leave. The duration of the leave will be 12 weeks when combined with all but one week of the vacation that the employee has accrued and all but one week of the sick leave that the employee has accrued.

"Many families can’t afford to take uncompensated time off to bond with a newborn child and that hurts children, working moms and working families generally,” said Michael Gonzales, Teamsters Local 174. “The Teamsters commend Councilmember Dembowski for addressing this issue head on with his paid parental leave policy and hope others follow suit.”