Unless you live in Pittsburgh, there’s a good chance you don’t keep up with Allegheny County news. But if you’re in leave management, you’ll want to pay attention to a new law the county has proposed.
Legislators in Allegheny County contributed to a growing trend when they drafted a rule that requires every employer in the area to offer employees up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave. While Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh already maintain paid sick leave laws, employees in the area may also be able to access leave as their families grow.
This proposal would only apply to a small portion of employers nationwide. But it provides a clear signal of where leave legislation is heading, as it joins a growing list of cities and counties with laws granting paid sick leave and other types of time off.
In the article below, we break down the details surrounding this development and what it tells us about the bigger picture for HR teams.
What is Allegheny County Proposing?
The proposal would amend an existing county health regulation that already covers paid sick leave. The big addition is a new paid parental leave requirement. Here’s what stands out:
- Up to 18 weeks of paid leave following the birth, adoption, or legal placement of a child.
- All employers, any size. Unlike many leave laws, there is no exception for small businesses. A company with five employees would be covered the same as a company with 5,000.
- Employees qualify fast. A worker is eligible after just 30 days on the job.
- Paid at the employee’s normal rate, with the same benefits they had before leave.
- Job protection. Employees must be returned to their old job or an equal one when leave ends.
- Flexible use. Leave can be taken all at once or on a reduced schedule, generally within the first year or within 18 months after the child arrives.
An Allegheny county leader has framed this as a public health issue, pointing to research that paid parental leave improves recovery for new parents and health outcomes for infants.
What is County Paid Family Leave?
Most people think about leave laws at two levels: federal and state. But laws passed at the city and county levels are becoming more common, and the Allegheny County proposal is one example.
Here’s a simple way to think about the three levels:
- Federal laws apply across the entire country. The best-known is the Family and Medical Leave Act, which offers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for employers with 50 or more employees.
- State laws apply only within a single state. Many states have added their own paid leave programs that go beyond what federal law requires. Pennsylvania does not currently have a statewide paid parental leave law.
- County laws apply to employees working within a specific county. The Allegheny County proposal would be one of these. It would cover employees working within the county, regardless of where the employer is based.
- Municipality laws apply to employees working in a specific municipality. Pittsburgh’s Paid Sick Days Act serves as one example.
A key thing to understand: these levels don’t replace each other. They stack. An employee can be covered by federal, state, and local leave rules all at the same time, and an employer often has to comply with all of their requirements at once.
How Does This Compare to Other Leave Laws?
This proposal is notably generous. Most paid leave in the U.S. is provided at the state level. Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. currently offer some form of paid family or parental leave. Pennsylvania is not one of them.
With the Allegheny proposal, what’s different is the level of government. A county has taken action while the proposed statewide legislation is still in review by the Senate , and the proposed benefit is generous.
Consider how this law stacks up with its federal counterpart. The federal FMLA offers up to 12 weeks of leave for new parents, but it’s unpaid. And it only applies to employers with 50 or more employees. Allegheny’s proposal offers a whopping 18 weeks of paid leave, and it applies to employers of every size.
Under this proposal, it’s possible that a worker at a small business in Allegheny would have stronger leave rights than someone working at a larger company elsewhere in the state — an employee qualifies after just 30 days with their employer, compared with the 12 months and 1,250 hours worked that the federal FMLA requires.
Here’s Why You Have to Pay Attention to Allegheny, Even If Your Company Is in Alaska
Here’s the part of this that matters, even if you’ve never set foot in Allegheny County, home of Pennsylvania’s second-largest city
For a long time, HR teams could think about leave legislation in two layers: federal and state. This proposal is a reminder that more leave laws are being passed at the county and city level.
If your organization has employees in more than one place, this trend is a big deal for you. It used to be enough to know the laws in the states where you operate. Increasingly, you also have to know the rules in specific cities and counties, and those rules can be more generous, apply to more employers, and change on their own timelines.
For HR teams still tracking leave in spreadsheets and email reminders, that’s a lot to keep up with. Every new layer is one more place a requirement can slip through the cracks. And the cost of missing one can result in compliance risk, legal exposure, and a worse experience for employees during some of the most important moments of their lives.
The map of leave obligations keeps getting more detailed. To keep up, build process that account for complexity instead of ignoring it.
How HR Can Stay Ahead of Changes Like This
You can’t control which laws Allegheny County enacts. But you can control how ready your team is for a steady stream of new and changing leave rules. A few practical steps:
- Watch the levels below the state. Build a habit of tracking city and county rules in the places where you have employees.
- Know your locations. Keep a current list of every city and county where you have workers, including remote employees. New leave rules often hinge on where someone actually works.
- Don’t wait for final rules. Track proposals while they’re still proposals. The employers who scramble are usually the ones who waited until a rule was already law.
- Lean on experts. Leave law moves fast. Whether it’s outside counsel, an internal compliance team, or a technology partner, make sure someone is responsible for catching changes before they catch you.
- Use technology built for leaves of absence. Modern leave management platforms are designed to track a large and growing body of leave laws so your team doesn’t have to do it all by hand.
At AbsenceSoft, staying ahead of leave law is what we do. The AbsenceSoft Compliance Engine (ACE) tracks more than 200 federal and state leave and accommodations laws and is kept up to date by an in-house team of leave experts. When an organization faces a unique or local requirement like this one, AbsenceSoft can be configured to support custom policies, so your process can flex as the rules change.
To learn more about how AbsenceSoft helps HR teams stay compliant as leave laws evolve, schedule a demo today.
FAQ on Paid County Family Leave
-
County-level paid family leave would be a leave requirement passed by a county government that applies only within that county, rather than across an entire state like a state law does. This is still a new area. The Allegheny County proposal would be among the first of its kind, so exactly how county paid leave works in practice isn’t settled yet.
-
The AbsenceSoft Compliance Engine tracks 200+ federal and state leave and accommodations laws. County- and city-level rules aren’t tracked the same way out of the box, but AbsenceSoft can be configured with custom policies to support local requirements when they apply to your organization.