Good Morning San Francisco!
No, this isn’t a failed attempt at a Full House throw-back-Thursday on a Wednesday. This is the hot new happening in San Francisco! On Thursday, March 31st, 2016 the city’s board of supervisors unanimously approved legislation requiring businesses to provide employees with six weeks of fully paid parental leave. This makes the San Francisco paid parental leave law the first of it’s kind in the U.S. to be legislated by a city.
The law was unanimously approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and grants a six-week leave for fathers and mothers working for companies with 20 or more employees, nearly doubling the pay they are currently able to collect under California law. This new provision is required to take effect on January 1st, 2017.
California seems to be the leader in wage and hour news this week. On Monday, the governor signed into law a bill raising the state’s minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour by the year 2023. The City of San Francisco currently offers 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave to its approximately 30,000 city employees.
Under the San Francisco policy, effective in 2017, employers must pay 45 percent of wages for up to six weeks. The remaining 55 percent of weekly wages will come from a worker-funded state disability program. Payments are to be calculated as a percentage of wages with an annual ceiling of $106,740.
Supporters cheer the new fully paid parental leave law because it will enable new parents to spend more time with their babies, while opponents say it will hurt profits and cost jobs.
San Francisco is not the only area of the country making wage and hour news this week. On Monday, New York’s governor signed a bill granting 12 weeks of paid family leave for private-sector workers that will phase in by 2021. California and New Jersey currently provide up to six weeks of partial pay, while Rhode Island offers four weeks.
Paid leave is nothing new to the tech world. Technology companies in Silicon Valley have increased paid family leave benefits to help recruit and retain employees. Netflix provides up to a year paid, while Facebook provides four months and Microsoft offers eight weeks.
Federal law, under the Family and Medical Leave Act, provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or adopted child for employees at companies with 50 or more workers.
How do you feel about the trend of paid parental leave that seems to be sweeping the U.S.? Maybe it depends on which side of the paycheck you are signing! Plan how you will accommodate a law like this in your organization when it hits your area – not if.
Until Next Time, Be Audit-Secure!
Lisa Smith
