Some Philly workers will get longer paid parental leave, but officials acknowledge it’s still not enough

Thousands of Philadelphia city workers will soon get six weeks of paid parental leave, a two-week expansion of the current benefit that is intended to help the municipal government retain workers amid a staffing crisis.

The move, agreed to last month by Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration as part of budget negotiations with City Council, will cost the city $2.1 million this year and will initially apply to employees like elected officials, Council appointees, some department heads, and others who aren’t represented by a labor union.

Benefits for unionized employees must be collectively bargained. Michael Zaccagni, the city’s interim director of the Office of Human Resources, said the intent is to expand the benefit to all city employees.

“We look forward to working with our labor partners to make that happen,” he said.

The agreement shows a new willingness by lawmakers to expand parental leave benefits for the city’s 25,000-member workforce ahead of contract negotiations expected to begin next year with the city’s four major municipal unions. Those talks will be led by a new administration after Kenney leaves office in January.

While proponents of the expansion said the boost from four weeks to six weeks of paid leave to care for a new child is a needed change, they framed it as an incremental step and predicted the city would revisit the issue in the coming years.

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Six weeks of paid leave for new parents is still significantly less time than many private employers offer, and it’s half what federal workers across the country receive. A handful of states also provide 12 weeks of paid family leave to government employees.

National surveys show women take an average of 10 weeks of combined paid and unpaid maternity leave.

Stephanie Tipton, the city’s chief administrative officer, said that absent state or federal intervention to subsidize longer leave, it’s up to employers to foot the bill. And in the case of city government, that often means paying workers overtime to cover for colleagues who are out on leave.

“In an ideal world, it would be more than six weeks,” Tipton said. “I think it just comes down to, financially, what can we as a city government sustain?”

The expansion was one of several recommendations made by City Council’s Special Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Municipal Workers, a group convened by Council President Darrell L. Clarke that examined ways to stem the city’s understaffing problem. Payroll records show about 1 in 5 city jobs are vacant following a wave of retirements and resignations since 2020.

Other recommendations included funding a new, aggressive campaign to market city jobs, as well as hiring bonuses and a new workforce development scholarship program aimed at training employees to be promoted into hard-to-fill positions.

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Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, a Democrat who represents the city at-large, said expanding parental leave is a critical component of the city’s efforts to both retain workers and attract a younger generation to city service. She’s also championing legislation that would push the city to ensure every public building has a dedicated lactation space.

“It’s very difficult to be a working parent,” she said. “You really want to be present for your children, but also in your work and career. Just to have that transition time … is really helpful and beneficial for so many people.”

Gilmore Richardson was a Council staff member when she gave birth to her daughter in 2014 and to her son in 2016. She said she had serious health complications when her son was born and took 12 weeks off through a combination of accrued paid time off and the city’s four-week paid leave benefit.

She said six weeks of paid parental leave is “a step in the right direction.”

“I hope that one day,” she said, “we can provide 12 weeks.”