Creating a Compliant Parental Leave Policy

By Kimberly Mashburn, RN

National Accounts Practice Lead
The Hartford

After one large employer introduced a flexible 18-week paid parental leave policy in 2017, their number of men using the benefit more than doubled. This employer’s policy allowed parents to take the leave for one continuous period or in smaller bites, which resonated with fathers.

Paid parental leave (PPL) is becoming a staple of many employers’ benefit offerings and is an attractive recruiting and retention tool. Beyond employer offerings, more and more states are adopting paid family and medical leave (PFML) laws that include a parental leave component.

As of Jan. 1, 2020, eight states and the District of Columbia had PFML laws. Of those, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington allow employers to craft their own PPL plans if they meet or exceed the state’s paid leave requirements.

This can be a tremendous opportunity for employers to differentiate their benefit programs from competitors’. In a 2018 study,1 69% of fathers said they would change jobs in order to spend more time with their children, and 73% felt they had little workplace support for paid leave to bond with their new children. One in five men feared losing his job if he took the full amount of paid parental leave available.

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