In a world where worker-friendly policies seem near extinction…
…Where a president thinks women having babies is an inconvenience…
…One man is stepping up to offer city workers who become parents up to eight weeks’ paid parental leave.
So if you work for the city of Tampa and for some reason still think it’s a good idea to procreate, that’s good news.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s office announced Wednesday that, starting Feb. 12, full-time city workers employed with the City of Tampa for at least a year will qualify for paid parental leave. If a worker is a “primary” caregiver, he or she will get eight weeks’ paid leave “after the birth of a new child or placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care,” according to a media release sent out Tuesday.
“Secondary” caregivers, meanwhile, will receive two weeks’ paid leave.
As far as paid parental leave goes, it’s one of those benefits workers in most states get only if they’re lucky. U.S. law does mandate some form of leave so companies can’t fire someone for not going to work because there is a tiny screaming human that needs to be fed every two hours lying helplessly at home. But it doesn’t mandate that companies offer paid leave. It’s the only developed nation with that policy, and one of two countries in the world, the other being Suriname, that doesn’t require paid family leave of some sort. President Donald Trump said he would push for paid family leave during his campaign, however, he is surrounding himself with people who don’t seem like they’d be amenable to such a policy.
This, despite benefits for everyone except maybe people like fast food executive and incoming U.S. Labor Secretary Andy Puzder, who don’t want to lose all the money they made by making people unhealthy by adopting company policies that make people healthy. Capitalism, yo.
In a written statement, Buckhorn said health-minded policies like these help the city attract the best talent, and therefore make city government better.
“Attracting and retaining the most talented workforce does not solely lie in downtown amenities and adding jobs, it also requires providing a twenty-first century workforce for twenty-first century families,” he said. “Creating an environment in the City of Tampa that values the contributions of everyone and recognizes the need to balance work and family can only insure to the benefit of the people serve.”
See video of his comments here.
Buckhorn said in the video that no new parent should ever have to choose between going to work and spending those critical first few weeks at home with the little one.
He added that paid leave is not a just women’s issue, but an economic one.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 2, 2017.
