GOP states embrace paid parental leave for teachers

More Republican-led states are giving paid parental leave to public school teachers and other state employees, signaling a broader acceptance of family-friendly workplace policies once championed primarily by Democrats.

- Anna Claire Vollers, Tribune News Service

"All of these red states, I think we're late to the party," said South Carolina state Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who sponsored a bill this year to increase state employees’ paid parental leave from six to 12 weeks. It passed the majority-Republican South Carolina House in April with strong bipartisan support. This year, Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi joined 37 other states in granting paid parental leave to thousands of state workers. The trend has gathered steam in recent years. Some experts link it to the cascade of state abortion bans that followed the US Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision, which dismantled the federal right to abortion. Under fire from critics to do more to care for babies once they're born, at least a dozen conservative-led states with abortion bans have since granted or expanded paid parental leave for their state employees.

But others say the increasing bipartisan support for measures that help working parents is also a reaction to economic realities. "What we've seen, especially in more conservative states, is the public sector has experienced a lot of turnover," said Kameron Dawson, legal director of the Southern Office of A Better Balance, a legal organization focused on workplace rights. "They're looking for tools to recruit younger employees." Paid parental leave is the time off granted to workers for the birth or adoption of a baby, to care for a child, or to recover from a stillbirth or miscarriage. Without it, employees are left to cobble together their sick leave and vacation leave — or go unpaid — to stay home with a child and heal.