Elected leaders gather to push for paid parental leave
The Board of Health vote is scheduled for noon Monday. If passed, it will head to County Council.
By MEGAN TROTTER
TribLive
Allegheny County’s proposed paid parental leave policy drew a strong show of support Thursday, as elected Democratic officials from the county, state and federal levels gathered to rally behind the measure.
The event at the Western Pennsylvania Diaper Bank in North Point Breeze came just days before a scheduled Monday vote by the Allegheny County Board of Health on whether to advance the proposal.
It would require county businesses with 15 or more employees to provide 12 weeks of paid parental leave to workers who have been employed for at least six months or 625 hours.
“We made adjustments to the number of weeks of paid leave, the eligibility requirements, the threshold for the size of the business,” Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said. “But we did not lose sight that this is an urgent need in terms of improving the public health of infants and families across our region, and we’re letting working parents know that they deserve better than living hand to mouth, especially when they have a new baby to support and welcome to the family.”
The Board of Health introduced the first version of the paid parental leave policy in May.
The proposed policy was the first of its kind put forward by an individual municipality without a state mandate.
It would have required businesses of all sizes, with no minimum employee threshold, to provide 18 weeks of paid parental leave. Workers would have become eligible after 30 days on the job.
The proposal sparked months of public debate from May through September, inspiring demonstrations of support from union nurses and the release of several studies examining its potential economic and health outcomes.
It drew strong support from labor, healthcare and family advocates, while business groups raised concerns about the potential financial burden on employers.
On Thursday, Innamorato said the county estimated the cost for employers would be about $13 per month for a $15-per-hour employee.
“Even if you can’t be convinced that paid leave for new parents and new children is morally required in the United States of America in 2026, it still makes business sense. It retains workers. It makes sure that workers, when they come back to work, are mentally prepared to do their jobs,” said state Sen. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin.
State Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, D-East Liberty, said a paid parental leave mandate would help tackle racial and maternal health disparities, noting that Black infants in the region are less likely to reach their 1st birthday.
“The focus should be on health and healing, and that’s what a paid parental policy would allow a mom and families to do. Ninety-eight percent of maternal deaths in this commonwealth are preventable. Black mothers are two and a half times more likely to die before, during and after childbirth, right here in Allegheny County,” Mayes said.
Many of the politicians at the news conference spoke in favor of state and federal parental leave policies, which could help reduce inequalities from county to county.
“This is an issue that should be handled at the federal level. We shouldn’t have to be here, county by county, municipality by municipality, or state by state, ensuring that our families are well taken care of,” said U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale.
If the proposal is passed by the Board of Health, the legislation would then go before Allegheny County Council, where it would need to receive at least eight of the 15-member council’s votes.
Council members Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, D-Moon Township; Paul Klein, D-Pittsburgh; and Jordan Botta, D-Bloomfield, were all at Thursday’s event in support.
Madonna-Emmerling said paid leave can be a predictable business expense. She said many businesses already provide some form of leave and that a larger insurance pool could potentially increase competition among insurers and lower rates.
“I feel like the new policy has been very responsive to the comments we received, and is a compromise that both recognizes the public health crisis that Allegheny County is uniquely in, while also recognizing that businesses do have finite resources, and everybody, both families and the business community, is being squeezed from a lot of directions right now,” Madonna- Emmerling said. Local businesses told Trib-Live last week that, although the updated proposal was a step in the right direction, they still had concerns about being forced to bear the cost of supporting it. Many employers said they would favor a statewide or federal policy instead, arguing that a broader approach could reduce the risk of businesses and residents relocating to other areas.
Botta said his research into the county’s paid sick leave law, which passed in 2021, challenged some of his initial concerns. At the time, he said there was a significant amount of public backlash that the law was going to drive businesses out of Allegheny County and discourage others from moving there.
“In reality, between 2021 and 2025, there was a 3.5% increase in the number of businesses in Allegheny County,” Botta said. “The argument that this is going to decrease the number of businesses in Allegheny County simply doesn’t ring out.”
He also said the proposal could encourage smaller businesses with fewer than 15 employees to adopt similar policies, prompting broader efforts to support young parents across the county as well as “give a little kick in the rear to the state to implement a policy.”
The Board of Health vote is scheduled for noon Monday.
If approved by the board of health and 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.
