San Francisco became the first city in the country to mandate fully paid parental leave to care for a new child. Previously, if an employer did not supplement leave pay, a new parent would only have received 55 percent of their pay, under state parental leave policy. Now, San Francisco is requiring employers with at least 20 workers to pay the difference.
Though many larger employers already offer relatively generous parental leave policies, this law will expand the practice to many more companies, something that concerned some critics, who worried about its impact on smaller businesses. The legislation’s author says the concerns of such critics were taken into account in changes to the bill (see Scott Wiener interview, page 11).
