Gov. McMaster in Rock Hill to celebrate new parental leave law for SC school workers
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster held a ceremonial bill signing Wednesday in Rock Hill that grants school district employees paid parental leave time off for the birth, adoption or fostering of a child.
The governor originally signed the school parental leave bill into law on May 12, and it went into effect on June 26.
The legislation is expected to help retain and recruit teachers, officials said.
The law requires school districts to provide up to six weeks of maternity leave and two weeks of paternal leave for employees when a child is born, adopted, or fostered.
McMaster, a Republican, held the ceremonial signing at South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, while flanked by Rock Hill school district teachers and some of the politicians who pushed the law. McMaster said the state needs top quality schools and teachers to boost economic development and investment, and attract business and industry.
“We have to have the best teachers that we can, and encourage them,” McMaster said at the signing Wednesday.
Employees do not have to use up all other forms of leave before being eligible to take paid parental leave, McMaster’s office said in a written statement.
The law gives school employees the same paid leave as state employees. That law for other state employees was signed last year in 2022, the governor’s office said.
Supporters of the new law said in May that providing paid parental leave would help recruit teachers and keep teachers in the profession amid South Carolina’s growing teacher shortage, according to The State, another McClatchy newspaper.
McMaster, 76, in his second full term as governor after taking over from Nikki Haley in 2017, talked of the impact a teacher had on him decades ago in the fourth and fifth grade while growing up in Columbia. S.C. Superintendent of Schools Ellen Weaver also was also at South Pointe for the signing. Weaver said retaining top teachers is crucial to schools’ success.
Teacher pay has risen in the past six years in South Carolina. Six years ago, the minimum starting teacher salary was $30,113. Today, the minimum starting salary is $42,500, with the goal to increase the minimum starting salary to at least $50,000 by 2026, the governor’s office said in a statement.
This story was originally published August 16, 2023 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Gov. McMaster in Rock Hill to celebrate new parental leave law for SC school workers."
