FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF)- The City of Fort Worth is implementing a new parental leave policy for city employees.
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price says it’s for mothers and fathers adopting or having a baby and employees will get up to 6 weeks of paid leave. The policy is paid in full and not based on tenure of the employee.
She said before this, the City of Fort Worth didn’t have a parental leave policy and no maternity leave policy and it would come out of vacation days.
Annually, there are approximately 100 births among employees and employee spouses who access City’s health insurance plan.
“As the city with the 2nd highest percentage of families with children in the nation, introducing this policy is not only the right thing to do, but the smart fiscal decision for the City long-term,” said Mayor Price. “In order to have strong businesses, we need healthy employees and healthy families. It’s important that we modernize our HR policies to reflect the needs of working parents, because if they aren’t supported with benefits that recognize their commitment to work and their family – there will be other companies that will provide that critical support.”
Price said this new benefit now positions Fort Worth among other cities who have modernized their parental leave policy in recognition of the overall return on investment it makes for organizations when it comes to increasing productivity, attraction and retention of talent and overall job satisfaction among working parents.
Fort Worth’s City Manager, David Cooke, states, “This benefit will positively impact the hundreds of families that didn’t have these supports in place and help us stay on the forefront of attracting quality, competitive candidates to meet the critical demands of running a city.”
The policy goes into effect October 1, 2020.
