New parents who are state employees could take up to six weeks of paid parental leave under a bill the Georgia House passed Thursday.
House Bill 1010 would provide the paid time off to state workers with at least six months of continuous full-time service. The leave would be taken within the first 12 months of giving birth or adopting a child.
This change would build upon benefits established in 2021, which gave workers up to three weeks of paid leave. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, workers may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off without losing their job.
State Rep. Jan Jones, the Republican speaker pro tem from Milton and the sponsor of the bill, described it as a “low-cost, high-value benefit to encourage support, recruit and retain valued employees,” including women, in particular, who she said make up two-thirds of state employees.
Most of a woman’s career is not spent having children, she said, “but when they do, it matters a lot to them.”
Workers must typically scrape together sick leave and vacation time or take unpaid time off after the birth of a child. “Remember what you’re asking a female to do if she just had a baby,” Jones said. If she takes unpaid leave, “she’s giving up her salary at a stressful time.”
The move to push laws supporting families, including family leave for state employees, follows legislation passed in 2019 that made abortion illegal except in the first few weeks of pregnancy, before a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity.
The changes would also allow Georgia to compete for skilled workers from other states in the South, Jones said, such as Tennessee and South Carolina, which both recently passed measures that expanded paid leave to six weeks.
However, the benefit would still remain low compared with other states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington that permit workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave.
“This is really important to the women and children of this state,” said Rep. Lauren Daniel, a Republican from Locust Grove. Daniel spoke about the bill with her infant baby strapped to her chest.
During a news conference following the passage of the bill, House Speaker Jon Burns said he’s prioritizing legislation that supports Georgia families to take care of themselves.
“Whether a family has a birth child or adoptive child, we’re going to do the right thing,” he said. “We’re going to give them an opportunity to be there and support that child in its early days.”
Burns and Jones also signaled an open mind to legislation introduced in both chambers that would provide reasonable accommodations for women who are pregnant, such as time off for medical appointments and temporary transfer to a less strenuous job.
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