“No new parent should be forced to choose between their paycheck and being there for their child in the early days of their life,” Bradley said. “This policy will ensure that treasurer’s office employees have a supportive work environment where their contributions are valued, and their families are put first.”
Montgomery County employees under the purview of county commissioners currently receive three weeks off with full pay when becoming either the mother or father of a newborn or adopted child, according to the county.
Leaders of county offices, including the treasurer’s, auditor’s, recorder’s and prosecutor’s offices who are generally elected by the public, have wide latitude to change policies within their offices. Like the treasurer’s office before this week, the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office has no specific parental leave policy. Personal days, vacation and sick days can be used for parental leave, according to the auditor’s office.
Bradley, who was named by Democrats to fill the position after Russ Joseph stepped down in April, is expecting a child this fall but said he will not benefit from his own new policy. Republican John McManus defeated Joseph, a Democrat, in November’s general election and will take the oath Sept. 3 and begin work Sept. 7 following the Labor Day holiday.
Bradley, who is adopted, called the new action “one of the most progressive paid parental leave policies in Ohio.”
“No matter what your family looks like or how it became a family, parents should be able to take time to be there for their kids,” he said.
McManus said he spoke this week with Bradley about the new policy but hasn’t seen all the details.
“I share his opinion that parents should be afforded enough time to be with their newborn children. It’s also an effective tool in the recruitment and retention of qualified and dedicated employees. It makes sense from a workforce development perspective,” McManus said. “Assuming that the plan is still affordable in the upcoming budget, I’d be proud to sustain its implementation.”
It’s unclear how many treasurer’s office employees may benefit from the policy in any given year. Over the past three years, no employee of the treasurer’s office has become the parent of a newborn or adoptive parent, according to an office spokesman.
The treasurer’s office currently has 30 employees with several open positions. The average projected 2021 salary factoring in all budgeted positions is $46,887, according to the office.
City of Dayton employees who have a natural birth or legally adopt a child have a 14-calendar-day waiting period, during which time they can use sick time, vacation days or not be paid for missing work. After 14 days, the city provides workers 70% of their salaries for the next 28 calendar days. Or employees can receive 100% of their pay by supplementing their checks with vacation or sick time, according to the city.
The United States is the only one of 41 high- and middle-income countries without statutory paid maternity or parental leave, according to a 2016 UNICEF study. The country’s Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, prescribes 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected parental leave.
Access to parental leave is largely determined by the employer and fathers typically get much less, according to Ball State University study of 353 responding Fortune 500 companies.
More than a quarter of the companies in the study offered no parental leave at all. Of the 72% that did, mothers averaged about 10 weeks of paid leave while fathers, on average, received fewer than five weeks, according to the research published last year.
Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman said the piecemeal and inequitable approach to parental leave across public and private sectors is due to congressional inaction.
“I’m looking to our federal government for taking the lead and make it easier for everyone to be able to do this because we know some businesses can’t,” she said. “We as a country have to do better.”
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