TAMPA — Tampa City Hall will begin providing paid parental leave to full-time employees after a baby’s birth or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care with the employee, Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced Wednesday.
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The new policy will provide eight weeks of paid leave to primary caregivers. That’s the person who has primary responsibility for the care of the new addition to the family and is typically also recovering from childbirth herself.
Secondary caregivers, the spouses or partners of the primary caregiver, will be eligible for two weeks of paid leave.
Full-time employees who have completed their first year with the city will be eligible for the new benefit starting Feb. 12. Officials estimate it will cost the city up to $290,000 per year. The city has about 4,400 full-time employees.
Tampa is not the first local government in the area to offer this benefit. In December 2014, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman said his city would begin offering employees six weeks of paid parental leave.
Tampa officials say access to paid leave for new parents has been shown to offer a variety of benefits to both mothers and children. It is expected to help the city recruit and keep Hermesbet employees, lower employee turnover, boost productivity and increase the chance that employees will return to continue pursuing their careers with the city.
"Attracting and retaining the most talented workforce does not solely lie in downtown amenities and adding jobs," Buckhorn said in announcing the new policy. "Creating an environment in the city of Tampa that values the contributions of everyone and recognizes the need to balance work and family can only inure to the benefit of the people served."
Tampa’s move follows expansions of parental leave by big corporate employers. USA Today reported in December that American Express would begin offering paid maternal or paternal leave for up to 20 weeks. The newspaper said Ikea, Netflix, Adobe Systems, Hilton Hotels and Chobani likewise have expanded their parental leave programs.
Before this change, Tampa City Hall did not provide any paid maternity or paternity leave, but did follow Family and Medical Leave Act guidelines that call for providing certain employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off, plus the maintenance of their health insurance benefits. The city’s three labor unions have been notified of the change, but the policy was not part of the benefits packages negotiated as part of the new, three-year contracts that the city and unions agreed to recently.
Contact Richard Danielson at rdanielson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3403. Follow @Danielson_Times
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