Greensboro Adopts Paid Parental Leave Policy for City Employees
Post Date:08/30/2016 11:00 AM
This month, the Greensboro City Council unanimously approved a new policy that provides six weeks of paid time off for employees when they become the parent of child. The new policy goes into effect September 1.
City leaders believe that strong families benefit both the local community and the workplace. The new policy furthers the City’s goal of being a leader among family friendly workplaces by offering parents time to focus on bonding with their child.
“This policy is about quality of life for our employees, but it’s also about stewardship for our taxpayers. This will help the City of Greensboro recruit and retain the best employees,” said Greensboro’s Human Resource Director Connie Hammond. Google, for instance, found that increasing its paid maternity leave improved retention rates for new mothers by 50 percent.
Under the new policy, benefit-eligible employees can take up to six weeks of paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or when they take custody of a child in their care through foster care or a guardianship arrangement. An employee must be employed by the City for 12 months to qualify. Previously, employees had to use a combination of sick time, vacation days or unpaid time off to take a break from the job following the birth or adoption of a child.
The move makes Greensboro the only large city in NC – and one of only a few dozen municipalities across the country – to offer such a benefit to its employees, according to the US Department of Labor. The new policy is the latest progressive and family friendly employment policy the City of Greensboro has adopted. Greensboro allows parents or guardians to take four paid hours off per year to volunteer at or attend a function at their child’s school. Greensboro also offered employees same-sex partner benefits for nearly a decade before gay marriage became legal. The City Council also recently decided to increase the minimum wage of a benefited City employee to $15 per hour by 2020.
