San Francisco enacts 6 weeks for baby
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Founder and CEO Mark Dwight of Rickshaw Bagworks says a proposal approved Tuesday by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that requires fully paid family leave for new parents is too burdensome for small businesses.
SAN FRANCISCO >> San Francisco on Tuesday became the first place in the country to require businesses to provide fully paid leave for new parents in what was hailed as the latest move to address income inequality in the nation.
The measure approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors will give new mothers and fathers six weeks of fully paid time off, a rarity now offered to some government-sector workers and some private employees, particularly those who work in the tech industry.
“The vast majority of workers in this country have little or no access to paid parental leave, and that needs to change,” Supervisor Scott Wiener, who pushed the measure, said at a news conference before the vote.
The measure requires another formal vote by the board next week as well as approval by Mayor Ed Lee, but the unanimous vote makes the measure veto-proof. Lee was not immediately available for comment.
Small-business owners complained that the mandate is the latest in a long list of city mandates — including paid sick leave and health coverage — that unfairly targets them.
“They don’t necessarily have the resources, they can’t absorb the increases in cost and they feel like it’s kind of relentless, it’s one thing after the next,” said Dee Dee Workman, vice president of public policy at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
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Mark Dwight, founder and CEO of Rickshaw Bagworks in San Francisco, said the proposal will cut into the competitive edge of small businesses like his. Rickshaw, which makes custom work bags, has 30 employees. Dwight said he doesn’t have the wiggle room to spread the costs and cannot turn to deep-pocketed investors to help out.
The issue of paid parental leave is gaining momentum across the country much like the debate over a higher minimum wage.
Paid leave has become a topic in the presidential campaign as companies, especially in Silicon Valley, start offering better benefits. Twitter, located in San Francisco, announced Tuesday that it would offer up to 20 weeks of fully paid leave for new parents starting May 1.
San Francisco approved a $15 hourly minimum wage for workers in 2014. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday mandating that amount for the entire state.
The U.S. lags other countries in providing parental leave and is the only major industrialized nation that doesn’t require paid leave.
Federal law grants workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. California, Rhode Island and New Jersey provide partial pay, with the money coming from employees. Legislators in New York last month approved up to 12 weeks of partial pay.
California currently allows workers to receive 55 percent of their pay for up to six weeks to bond with a new child. The money comes from a state insurance program funded by workers.
The San Francisco measure requires employers with at least 20 employees to make up the rest. The regulation will be phased in, starting with businesses that employ 50 workers, in January.
Among the dozen or so attendees at the Tuesday news conference was Kim Turner, a nonprofit attorney who took advantage of the state parental leave program. She says full paid leave would have been better.
“I do think employers should be pitching in more,” she said. “I think we all need more help. It’s just so hard to make ends meet with little ones in the house.”
Businesses with 35 to 49 workers must comply starting in July 2017, and businesses with 20 to 34 workers have until January 2018.
The business-sponsored Bay Area Council, whose members include tech giants Google and Facebook, supports the measure.
“Paid parental leave increases the probability that employees will return to work, be more productive and earn higher wages,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council. “That is good for business and for families.”
26 responses to “San Francisco enacts 6 weeks for baby”
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Very vital family care!
They just can’t help themselves. Bankruptcy is a must.
KUDO’S TO THE SFO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS!! Maybe, someday, when Hawaii Legislators learn to walk erect, without their knuckles dragging on the ground, Hawaii will be able to move beyond the 19th Century with regard to Human Rights. BTW : Where’s our “Human Trafficking Law” Mr. Chin?
“I do think employers should be pitching in more,” she said. “I think we all need more help. It’s just so hard to make ends meet with little ones in the house.”>>> YOU decide to have kids you really can’t afford and EMPLOYER need to pitch in for that?
““Paid parental leave increases the probability that employees will return to work, be more productive and earn higher wages,”>>> It will increase the probability that employers will reduce their exposure to this by not hiring young applicants. And how it works in the real world…after the paid leave, employees will quit.
Or have another kid and take more time off.
“I think we all need more help. It’s just so hard to make ends meet with little ones in the house.” If it’s hard to make ends meet with children in the home, Don’t. Have. Children. Go pick up your free Obamacare contraceptives and use it daily.
Agree! Have only one cuz that is what we can afford. Simple.
You have to laugh at the willful and utter incompetence of elected bureaucrats like Supervisor Scott Wiener and Jim Wunderman. Both have zero experience in running a business, have no clue to all the costs, government fees and regulations they must comply with.
Now a business is forced to pay 6 weeks of “Special parental leave” along with the employee’s regular leave time. And who is doing this person’s work while they are kicking back at home? Should these employees also be compensated for doing extra work? Or will a single, unmarried, sharp attorney, file a lawsuit for “Willful discrimination” against single people?
These whining bureaucrats make it sound like the country was in a crisis, parents of new children suffering badly, children’s future jeopardized. All not true. For decades the country did just fine without all these undeserved bonuses. An area where these bureaucrats haven’t got a clue.
Bloviating bureaucrats strike again. When is enough enough?
So, what’s the financial impact expected to be on businesses? How many workers per 1,000 are expected to take advantage of this law?
I know you were a low level DOD employee, so would you have had time (during regular time) to share the load for those out on the additional leave? I think the answer is yes, that means no additional costs.
Per 1,000? How about per 5? This law is especially onerous on small businesses that do not have the labor capacity to cover those who take leave. Just another example of government mandates which SFO is infamous for.
Agreed, and I might add, if the employee can be gone for six weeks was that job really necessary??? BTW, the CEO of Yahoo had twins in December and was back to work in a week–but she has a business to run!!
Sorry, my point is that you don’t know what the impact is per employee or per business. Maybe it affects one business, but not the other. Everyone here claims the sky is falling, but how can you make that determination without computing an impact amount or ratio or something. If not, the conclusions are unfounded, and purely anecdotal.
Serious, to answer your question, maybe, maybe not. I don’t know your background, but have you ever been in a position where you had to cover for a co-worker? for a day, a week? Maybe you as a co-worker could do it for 6 weeks, but not 8.
French residents all get 5 weeks vacation per year. My relative is in middle management in a Forutune 50 company and he gets 6 weeks vacation/year does that make his job necessary?
D.B, by the way, mathematically speaking, it doesn’t matter if you look at the impact per 5 or 5 million employees, it’s simply a ratio.
These aren’t bureaucrats, these are elected officials doing what the citizens of SF want. If it’s true that you were a low level DOD employee, then you enjoyed one of the best salaries and benefits packages available. You got this because elected officials (you call bureaucrats) thought it was important to have a happy and supported workforce.
And they will give overtime to the employees who have to do their work, RIGHT? Besides they get all kinds of benefits that single people don’t get! FIXED SYSTEM.
Sorry, can you clarify your pronoun use? I guess that would clear up, who gets all kinds of benefits that single people don’t get…I assume that to mean parents and or married people? What benefits are you talking about?
Not good. It’s humane and the purpose behind it is good……but not good. Nope.
It’s all relative depending on which side of the coin you exist.
Employer- Costly. Paying full wages for an employee that won’t/can’t contribute to the business for 42 days ?
If you have a small business with 5 employees and one employee is gone for 6 weeks, that can be a hugh impact on the business.
Employee- Celebration on getting a full paycheck to help out in the early stages after delivery – hopefully with no complications.
While SAN FRANCISCO is at it why not compensate the teachers during the summer months when schools out 3mths and they’re not receiving an income ? Silly? Yep.
Don’t teachers receive paychecks all year around?
Wow, wonder how the day laborers and house cleaners gonna collect?
This “paper” chose to run an AP wire-service story instead of a local-coverage story from San Francisco. I read the San Francisco Examiner story on this subject late last night. A “different story”, indeed. The Advertiser needs to hire some smart folks. They owe it to us readers.
like the dems here, what for?
They know they’re the only game in town, so they can do whatever they want, or don’t want, to do.
So, employers have to pay for the person to be off AND pay the additional person they had to use to do his workload? Yeah, this will work out fine.
This should kill small business in San Francisco.
Seems grossly unfair to those who choose not to over populate the planet.