Drafter
Clerk 04/16/2013
Title
AN ORDINANCE providing for additional leave benefits to care for a same-sex spouse; and amending Ordinance 12014, Section 21, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.220.
Body
PREAMBLE:
1. To attract the best employees, King County seeks to offer robust workplace benefits and fair treatment for all of its employees.
2. Studies have found that benefits packages, especially health-care and retirement benefits, are a direct contributor to employee loyalty, and that satisfied and engaged workers are more productive and perform better than less-satisfied colleagues.
3. The federal Defense of Marriage Act forces employers to consider the gender of the spouses of lawfully married employees when determining the scope and manner of benefits that may be extended to those spouses and the children of those spouses.
4. The Defense of Marriage Act provides discriminatory treatment in times of family illness. If an employee's different-sex spouse becomes seriously sick or injured, federal law permits him or her up to twelve work weeks of unpaid, protected leave to care for his or her spouse; an employee with a same-sex spouse is not entitled to receive the same protection under federal law.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Ordinance 12014, Section 21, as amended, and K.C.C. 3.12.220 are each hereby amended to read as follows:
A. Except for employees covered by subsection G. of this section, employees eligible for leave benefits shall accrue sick leave benefits at the rate of 0.04616 hours for each hour in pay status exclusive of overtime up to a maximum of eight hours per month; except that sick leave shall not begin to accrue until the first of the month following the month in which the employee commenced employment. No adjustment to reduce sick leave accruals for furloughed employee shall be made as a result of a budgetary furlough. The employee is not entitled to sick leave if not previously earned.
B. During the fir...

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