Dive Brief:
- Employee leave is back in the headlines again, as the District of Columbia may soon offer the most generous plan nationwide for workers to take time off after welcoming a new baby or caring for a dying parent.
- Introduced Tuesday to the D.C. Council, practically all part-time and full-time employees in D.C. could enjoy 16 weeks' paid family leave to care for an infant (or an adopted child), recover from sickness, decompress from a military deployment or care for a sick or dying family member.
- Backed by the White House, the D.C. family leave benefit bests other such leave programs, public or private, since it applies to both full-time and part-time workers, regardless of income level.
Dive Insight:
The plan, far and away the nation's best from the employee POV, would be funded by a new tax on D.C. employers. Most interestingly, the Washington Post reports, it is the country's first such plan that mimics what is offered across Europe, although there, parents can take as much as a year of paid time off following the birth of a child.
While some brand-name companies have been boosting family leave benefits of late, it's unlikely many will match the D.C.'s largesse. Private sector companies would be hard-pressed to be that generous, since they can't establish a tax-based funding mechanism. Even so, there may be more and more employers, private and public, who become more generous with family leave.
