Bipartisan-backed paid parental leave for SC state employees drops to 6 weeks
Thousands of South Carolina state employees could get six weeks, not the originally proposed 12 weeks, of paid parental leave starting this year under an amended proposal advanced by senators Tuesday.
The legislation, passed unanimously by the five-member Senate Finance subcommittee, would give state employees six weeks of paid time off after giving birth. And state employees who co-parent with someone who has given birth, adopt a child or have a foster child placed i their custody, would be eligible for two weeks of paid time off.
The proposal would not apply to teachers in the state because they are employees of school districts, said Ryan Brown, spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Education. Teachers don’t have dedicated paid parental leave but can use sick time to care for themselves or an immediate family member.
The bill has bipartisan support.
On Tuesday, Dave Wilson, the president of the conservative Palmetto Family Council, and Ashley Lidow, the director of policy and government relations for the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network in South Carolina, said the policy would provide better outcomes for parents and children.
“I think it’s real important that we make it abundantly clear (that) this is not a Republican, Democrat or a conservative, liberal issue,” Wilson told senators Tuesday. “This is a family issue. Being able to have a parent being involved in the life of their child, especially those early days, is critical to the life of that child.”
The House has passed its own version of paid parental leave last year, which called for 12 weeks of leave. Senators said Tuesday they amended the legislation to six weeks to help the bill get through the Legislature in time before the legislative calendar ends in mid-May.
Dropping the leave to six weeks is meant to get the bill passed without any objections in the Senate and without needing to use the special order priority slot to get the bill ahead of other legislation, said state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort.
“I think there was a lot of pragmatic assessment of what the opposition would be if we proceeded with 12 weeks, and the bill’s authors in both in the House and the Senate are satisfied that this particular bill was something that could get passed this year,” Davis said.
State Sen. Darrell Jackson and Rep. Beth Bernstein, both Democrats, sponsored the benefit for state employees.
Both represent portions of Richland County, home to easily hundreds, if not thousands, of state employees.
“I am flexible with what we would have to do to negotiate a bill passing,” Jackson said. “Our goal is to get a bill done this year. I am amenable ... to whatever the subcommittee thinks is the best avenue and what we could get passed this year.”
Jackson said he sponsored the bill after his legislative assistant, Ashley Stewart, had a high-risk pregnancy and didn’t want to use sick or vacation time for the birth of her second son. Stewart testified about her experience before Senate panel on Tuesday.
”I tried my very best to work every day during my entire pregnancy to prevent having to use any additional time so I could save up enough time to spend with my newborn once he was born,” Stewart said. “Although I have saved enough time, between annual leave and sick leave to spend ample time my newborn, a lot of employees do not have this time at their disposal. This results in having to take the needed time without pay.”
A cost study of the legislation estimates allowing 12 weeks of paid parental leave would cost the state about $5.5 million a year. No estimate was available for a six-week leave program.
With thousands of job openings across the state, advocates for the legislation said Tuesday that passage of the bill could help encourage people to come work for the state.
“Paid family leave allows for people to have positive health outcomes both as a birthing parent and non-birthing parent and for infants as well as a recruitment and retention strategy for the state workforce,” Lidow said.
