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A MOTION declaring that it is county policy to establish a paid family leave program for King County employees and directing the executive to develop and transmit a work plan for implementing a paid family leave program and a report on the costs and benefits of implementing and providing a paid family leave program.
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WHEREAS, the United States is the only advanced industrialized country without a national law providing new parents with access to at least partially paid family leave, and
WHEREAS, the 1993 U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act requires firms employing at least fifty persons to offer eligible workers twelve weeks of job-protected unpaid time off work to care for newborn or newly adopted children, to care for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition, or to care for themselves when they are unable to work because of a serious health condition. However, a 2012 U.S. Department of Labor survey found that the number of employees who reported needing leave but not using it doubled since 2000. The most common reasons for not using leave were inability to afford it, given by forty-six percent of the respondents, and fear of losing their jobs, given by seventeen percent of respondents. Those who did not take needed leave were more likely to be women, nonwhite, unmarried and earning less than thirty-five thousand dollars annually, and
WHEREAS, an Institute for Women's Policy Research report for the U.S. Department of Labor found that paid maternity leave can affect breastfeeding rates and duration, reduce the risk of infant mortality and increase the likelihood of infants receiving well-baby care and vaccinations. The same report found that fathers who take time off from work around childbirth are more likely to spend more time with their children in the months following their children's birth, which could reduce stress on the family and contribute to father-infant bonding, and
WHEREAS, twelve weeks of paid parental leave ...

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