Revised paid parental leave proposal brings relief, but concerns remain for some Allegheny County businesses

Some business owners say paid leave programs should be funded by the state.

By MEGAN TROTTER
TribLive

Raymond Ramey had been doing the math — and he didn’t like what he saw.

As the owner of Brave Bean Coffee Co. on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, Ramey worried Allegheny County’s proposed paid parental leave policy could saddle his young business with a cost he simply couldn’t absorb.

Then, on Wednesday, the proposal changed.

The Allegheny County Board of Health unveiled a revised version of the policy that cut six weeks from the proposed leave benefit and exempted businesses with 14 or fewer employees. For Ramey, the change was significant — his coffee shop would no longer be required to provide paid leave to employees welcoming a new child.

“It’s a big relief for us because that would have been a major impact to the business, for sure,” Ramey said.

Ramey’s concerns reflect a tension that has shaped months of debate over the county’s ambitious paid parental leave proposal — the first of its kind by an individual municipality without a state mandate.

But even with the policy scaled back, many business owners still say the policy is unreasonable because it requires employers to shoulder the cost of paid leave.

At Wednesday’s board of health meeting, Dr. Iulia Vann, the director of public health for the Allegheny County Health Department, outlined a new proposal that cut paid leave from 18 weeks to 12. It would only allow workers who have to be employed for at least six months or logged 625 hours to qualify.

Stillbirth also was added as a qualifying event, subject to specified requirements and provisions.

Carrie Nolan-Robson, executive director of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, said the updated draft is a “little bit of a win,” but an equitable treatment for employers and employees requires a different funding source.

She said the new policy still leaves a “big gray area” for anybody who operates a small business above the employee threshold.

“It just has to be something that is equitable on both sides, and I think we’re moving the needle,” Nolan- Robson said. “(But) the funding source is not being addressed, and that is something that also needs to happen for these small businesses and nonprofits.”

A benefit with broad backing

First introduced in May, the proposal’s initial draft required businesses of all sizes, with no minimum employee threshold, to provide paid parental leave to all employees who have worked at a company for at least 30 days.

The proposal quickly gained enthusiastic support from families, nurses and labor unions, who stressed paid leave would give families critical time to recover from childbirth, care for newborns, adjust to a major life change and even increase the likelihood of employees returning to work in the long run.

Vann said during the meeting that of the board of health’s more than 1,500 comments about the proposed leave, 56% of them were in total support of the legislation.

“The county heard from moms and dads, experts and business owners about paid parental leave and we took the feedback to heart,” Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said in a statement. “The revised bill presented (Wednesday) is bold and puts public health for Allegheny County families first, while still being responsive to concerns that we’ve brought forward over the last few months.”

On Thursday, the leaders of several unions released statements in support of the revised proposal. They included Matt Yarnell, president of SEIU Pennsylvania State Council; Bernie Hall, District 10 director for United Steelworkers; Joseph Laquatra, Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council business manager; and John Galuska, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, AFLCIO.

“Working people shouldn’t have to choose between a paycheck and being there for their family when a new child arrives,” Hall said. “Whether you work in one of our legacy industries or are part of the growing number of workers organizing in education and other new sectors, 12 weeks of paid parental leave provides real security for families.

“This is the kind of bold benefit that raises the standard for working people across Allegheny County,” he added.

The Keystone Research Center estimated less than 2% of Allegheny County’s workforce would be eligible to use the benefit in any given year and that states with well-established paid parental leave programs had roughly 40% of eligible workers who participated. The research revealed actual utilization of paid leave could be much lower than the total number of workers eligible for the benefit.

But business owners worry covering weeks of paid leave while potentially paying someone else to fill the absent worker’s role could strain already thin margins — a concern that still rang true for some business owners Friday.

Who picks up the tab?

Data from the insurance provider Parento said coverage for an employee earning $15 per hour would cost an employer about $13 per month, while coverage for an employee earning the county’s stated median annual wage of $66,000 would cost about $30 per month.

Under the new policy, eligible employees would receive 100% of their wages during leave, up to a maximum paid parental benefit of $4,200 per week.

Some workers at businesses that would be exempt under the revised proposal see a need for paid leave but don’t believe individual employers should be funding it.

Deja Clark, 26, an assistant manager at Brave Bean, also sees the exemption as reasonable for a young business like the coffee shop, which has been open since 2023. But from an employee’s perspective, she doesn’t think that should mean workers go without paid leave.

“But I think the government should fund all leaves, not just parental leave,” Clark said. “I think PTO should be guaranteed. I don’t think it should necessarily be up to the company because it is harder to provide when you’re a newer business.”

Clark has worked at Brave Bean since May. She said the company does not offer paid time off and, to her knowledge, does not have a specific parental leave policy.

Nolan-Robson said she believes the 15 employee threshold is still too low under the updated proposal.

On Sept. 10, about a week before the board released the new proposal, state Rep. Arvind Venkat, D-McCandless, spoke at an Allegheny County Council public hearing about the parent leave proposal. During his presentation, Venkat spoke in favor of exemptions for small businesses at a 50 employee threshold.

Venkat is a co-sponsor of the Pennsylvania Family Care Act, a House bill that aims to establish a statewide paid family and medical leave program.

“We need to have a state-level policy to support counties and local jurisdictions in doing this. I also think we need to have a really significant discussion about how it is paid for,” Venkat said. “How I would approach it, it would be in the formula similar to how we do Social Security and Medicare, where everyone has skin in the game in terms of contributing to and having eligibility requirements, so that it becomes a broader benefit where the costs are shared appropriately.”

Meredith Boyle, owner of Balvanera in the Strip District and Casa Anchoa in Downtown’s Cultural District, said as a mother of two she has experienced firsthand how different parental leave can look when paid support is available. However, she said even the revised proposal is not sustainable for many businesses required to provide it.

“The employer-funded model creates a significant financial burden for labor-intensive operations like restaurants. In this revised proposal, employers remain responsible for funding the required benefit either by self-insuring the leave or purchasing private paid-parental-leave insurance,” Boyle said in a statement.

For some, 12 weeks still too much

Pat McDonnell, an owner of Restaurant Holdings LP, which has more than 400 employees, said his objections to mandated paid parental leave are both philosophical and financial.

“I don’t believe the government should be involved. I believe that an employee takes a job at will. We employ them at will,” McDonnell said. “We give pretty much everyone at least a week off paid, but from there we decide if there’s more that we feel necessary. That is the right thing to do.”

McDonnell, a parent himself, recalled returning to work much sooner after the birth of a child. He said decisions about how much paid time to provide should remain with employers.

“You’d have a child, and within a week you’d be back to work. And actually, for many people, it’s a few days,” McDonnell said.

But for MaShell Terney, a community organizer for Mother Forward, childbirth and recovery was not that easy.

On Wednesday, Terney told the board of health about how she experienced postpartum depression after giving birth to her daughter during the covid-19 pandemic. Around the same time, her partner lost his job, suddenly leaving the family without his income as Terney recovered from childbirth.

Without paid leave from her employer, Terney said financial pressure forced her back to work when her daughter was 4 weeks old.

“We needed money. We needed to pay rent. We needed to feed our family,” Terney said.

Terney said she developed mastitis and struggled with stress and symptoms of postpartum depression while trying to balance work with caring for her infant.

“Instead of having a parenthood to survive, I would have been able to parent and build connections with my family and children,” she said.

Vann and other public health officials say paid parental leave is not simply an employee benefit but rather provides broader social and environmental conditions that influence health. They said paid parental leave helps to reduce food insecurity, increases workforce retention and enhances financial stability during a period of heightened vulnerability for families.

“It is increasingly recognized as a foundational public health strategy that operates at the level of ‘population health’ rather than individual choice,” Vann said.

The board of health will hold a special meeting at noon Monday, Sept. 28 about the new policy proposal. If approved by the board of health, Allegheny County Council and signed by Innamorato, businesses would have a six-month implementation period after the legislation is signed into law.

Employers that need additional time to align implementation with their fiscal year or budget cycle could receive up to an additional six months, meaning all covered employers would be required to implement the policy within one year of enactment.