Discussion Regarding Paid Parental Leave

The purpose of this discussion is to inform the City Council of a fairly new employee benefit that is becoming more common.  The employee benefit is referred to as Paid Parental Leave and it may be a positive move in aiding employee morale, as well as potentially helping with the City’s recruitment and retention efforts.  Note, this discussion is only regarding the possibility of offering a paid leave benefit to certain City employees.  The City continues to be compliant with all Federal and State laws regarding an employee's rights to time away from work. 

Background
A Paid Parental Leave law that was signed by President Trump on December 20, 2019 offering Federal civilian employees up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child for employees covered by Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).  Staff is not recommending approval of 12 weeks of paid parental leave; however is looking for feedback regarding some level of a paid parental paid leave benefit. If the City Council is interested in considering this benefit staff will be prepared to discuss the details at the meeting.  Currently, staff is aware of several cities that offer paid parental leave; including, but not limited to Brooklyn Park, Clearwater, Eden Prairie, Minneapolis, Northfield, Richfield, Shoreview, St. Louis Park, St. Paul, as well as Hennepin County. 

City of Ramsey
Here at the city of Ramsey, there have been employees in the past that have taken unpaid parental leave or have taken leave that has been only partially paid due to a lack of available paid leave.  The reality in most cases is that employees who are new parents have very little accrued leave time available due to being newer employees.  For example, after one year of fulltime employment, most employees will have earned only 12 days of sick time and 10 days of vacation time, totaling 22 days, excluding any time already taken due to illness or vacation. 

A two year review of the City’s payroll records shows that from 01-01-18 to 12-31-19, there were two employees that went without pay due to unpaid parental leave.  If approved, it is estimated that not more than five employees per year would be eligible for such a benefit.  Since employee wages are budgeted as a year round expense, offering a paid parental leave benefits, in most cases, would not impact the City’s budget. 

Policy Considerations
The purpose of such a policy would be to provide parents of all genders time to bond with newborn children or newly adopted children with less financial worry.  Therefore, in recognition of the importance of family and work life integration, the City Council may wish to consider a policy to provide paid parental leave benefits to benefit earning employees due to the birth of an employee’s child or adopted child. This policy would not apply to foster parents, surrogate mothers or sperm or egg donors. 

The policy would apply to all regular full-time and part-time eligible, benefit-earning City employees who have been employed by the City and are benefit earning for a minimum of one continuous year (12 months). Staff’s research shows that most cities offer an equal benefit to both genders.  However, one city has policy language stating:  “…Parent that gives birth shall receive 4 weeks of paid leave….and other purposes shall receive 2 weeks.” This policy would be separate and distinct from any other City benefit. 

Staff proposes, if approved by resolution at a later date, the paid parental leave benefit would provide 100% of the employee’s regular base wage for regularly scheduled work hours, for up to a specified number of working days or hours. The benefit would, if approved, become available on the employee’s first scheduled work day after the baby’s birth or placement for adoption and would be applied prior to other accrued leave.  In the unlikely event that any unused time remained after 12 weeks, the benefit would be forfeited. Multiple births or adoptions (i.e. twins, triplets), medical conditions, and/or other circumstances would not increase the length of paid leave granted. For the purpose of this benefit, holidays would not be counted as a regularly scheduled work day and would not be included in the work day or hours count. The City’s benefit contributions and leave accruals would continue during paid parental leave. However, accruals would not exceed policy or contractual maximums allowed for each respective leave. Paid parental leave would run concurrently with FMLA, MN Parental Leave and would not extend the length of these leaves or programs.

Any change in benefits for union employees would need to be negotiated with the respective bargaining units.  Non-union employee benefit changes would need to be amended into the city's Personnel Policy.



 

Up to 15 minutes.

Not applicable at this time.

Administrative Services Director, Colleen Lasher

For the City Council to to provide staff with feedback on whether or not to offer paid parental leave.