City Of San Francisco Paid Parental Leave For City Employees, Proposition B (November 2015)

Shall the City amend the Charter to allow parents who are both City employees to each take the maximum amount of paid parental leave for which they qualify for the birth, adoption or foster parenting of the same child, if both parents are City employees; and to provide each parent the opportunity to keep up to 40 hours of sick leave at the end of paid parental leave?^[5]

The Way It Is Now: The Charter provides City employees with 12 weeks of paid parental leave to care for a child after birth or adoption or becoming a foster parent. A City employee may receive an additional four weeks of paid parental leave if, as certified by a healthcare provider, the employee is temporarily disabled by pregnancy. If two City employees qualify to take paid parental leave, they may not each take 12 weeks of leave for the birth, adoption or foster parenting of the same child. The combined total of paid parental leave allowed for the same child is 12 weeks, or 16 weeks if one employee has been temporarily disabled by pregnancy. Before receiving paid parental leave, an employee must first use all other paid leave, including sick leave, vacation, and floating holidays. If an employee does not use all available paid leave, the amount of unused leave is subtracted from the paid parental leave benefit.

The Proposal: Proposition B would amend the Charter to:

• allow each parent to take the maximum amount of paid parental leave for which they qualify for the birth, adoption or foster parenting of the same child, if both parents are City employees; and
• provide City employees the opportunity to keep up to 40 hours of sick leave at the end of paid parental leave.

A "YES" Vote Means: If you vote “yes,” you want to allow each parent to take the maximum amount of paid parental leave for which they qualify for the birth, adoption or foster parenting of the same child, if both parents are City employees; and provide each parent the opportunity to keep up to 40 hours of sick leave at the end of paid parental leave.

A "NO" Vote Means: If you vote “no,” you do not want to make these changes to the Charter.^[5]

Proposition B, Paid Parental Leave For City Employees, would allow each parent of a new child to use up to 12 weeks of parental leave, and they could each keep up to 40 hours of sick time following the parental leave. The cost of this measure, between $570,000 and $1.1 million annually to fill the positions with other workers during both the parental leave absence and for the 40 hours of sick time is a worthwhile expense to help attract top talent to city positions and to ensure those workers with infants can better care for their families.^[5]

Proposition B’s proposed expansion San Francisco’s parental leave policy would be relatively minor in terms of substance and budget. But it would be an enormous help to the few families that would be affected by it.

Under current law, the result of a 2002 ballot measure, city employees are allowed up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a newly arrived child — whether by birth, adoption or foster care. The city covers the cost after a worker’s accrued paid time off is exhausted.

However, in cases in which both parents work for the city, each is allowed only six weeks off.

This measure would assure that each parent is provided with a 12-week benefit. It also would allow city employees who take parental leave to retain up to 40 hours of their accrued sick leave. As all parents know, the first years are often accompanied by frequent illnesses for the child and everyone else in the family.^[5]

Should the proposed charter amendment be approved by the voters, in my opinion, there would be an increase in the cost of government of between $570,000 and $1.1 million annually.

The amendment allows City employees whose spouse or partner is also a City employee to receive paid leave for up to 12 weeks upon the birth or adoption of a child. The cost to the City depends on the number of employees whose spouse or partner is a City employee, the amount of City parental leave taken, pay rates, and other factors.

Based upon historical parental leave usage patterns, we estimate a cost of $100,000 to $160,000 to pay overtime or hire temporary replacements for employees taking additional parental leave who work in 24- hour operations. If these new users took the full 12-week benefit, the cost to backfill positions would range from $270,000 to $410,000 annually. This does not include the cost of replacing employees who are not in 24-hour operations, where a given employee's absence does not reflect an increase in cost but rather a loss of productivity.

Additionally, the amendment allows employees to retain 40 hours of sick leave rather than being required to use those hours prior to using parental leave. The cost to backfill all users of parental leave for the additional 40 hours of leave ranges from $470,000 to $700,000 per year. Again, this amount does not include reduced productivity that may result from absences in non-backfilled positions.^[5]