Parental leave paid for Iowa state workers passes the Chamber Committee

State employees would receive for the first time a parental leave paid under a bill which advanced Wednesday through a legislative committee with unanimous support.

Currently, state workers do not receive any paid leave for the birth of a child. But the republican governor Kim Reynolds said that one of his priorities this year was to change that.

“We want to clearly indicate that we are a pro-family and pro-life state”, ” Reynolds had previously told the monks register. “I talk about it all the time, but, you often know this is always put in the context of abortion. But I think it’s bigger than that. We want to work very hard to create a culture where I think I have and raise children is a priority – that we want to put families first. »»

The Government Committee of the State of the House gave unanimous approval Bill for studying the house 78 Wednesday.

The bill, as well as his Senate companion, Senate study bill 1040would provide four weeks of paid leave to state employees who give birth, as well as a week of paid leave for parents who do not give birth. They also call four weeks of leave paid for adoptive parents.

This is the third consecutive year, legislators have examined the policy. And although he already has votes from the erased committee, he has never accelerated to a floor vote in one or the other room.

The Republicans said The change of policy has been confronted with the opposition in the past of business leaders who fear that they are unable to compete with the state for high quality workers.

Democratic representative Sami Scheetz, D-CEDAR RAPIDS, who helped move the bill through a sub-comity this year, said he wanted the bill made more but that ‘called a “good first step”.

“I appreciate that the governor had made this advanced,” he said. “And I hope she will use her considerable influence in this building to get this through the finish line this year.”

The Iowa Senate Democrats have introduced much wider legislation that would force public employers and private companies with at least 10 employees to provide 12 weeks of paid parental leave. But with the Republicans organizing a legislative supermajority, it is unlikely that it will gain ground.

Democrats joined the Republicans on Wednesday to also approved House file 26Who would oblige employers to treat adoptive parents in the same way as biological parents in terms of policies and benefits for the first year after adoption.

The bill currently only applies to parents who adopt a child under the age of 6, but legislators have expressed interest in doing more research on the needs of parents who adopt older children outside the system of family placement and adjustments.

Parents defend a paid family leave policy devoted to state workers

Iowa state employees and across the country are covered by the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, who says he is entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the birth of a child.

In Iowa, if state workers want to be paid for one of the time, they must use vacation and sick leave.

Molly Widen, who is now the chief of staff of the state treasurer, said in the register that she could have stretched her patients and holidays to assemble four weeks off after the birth of her twins.

“I was very lucky that my bank (free time) accumulated at this level where I had a certain flexibility,” she said. “But, I mean, what do you say to the mother who already has two children, and someone comes from RSV, so they barely have sick leave, and she discovers, you know, that she is pregnant ?

Widen was among those of the government of the state which pleads for a change.

Her twins, Liam and Lucy, spent several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit after birth, and would widen at work after just a month when she weighed her decrease leave. She knew she should keep a game for future medical meetings while twins were fighting against the effects of premature delivery.

She now wonders how this rapid return assigned her and her family.

“If I had these four weeks while they were at the factory, where I could have really focused on them and then had time when we got home to understand things and bond in FAMILY-It makes me ask me if I would not have developed postpartum depression, “she said. “I fought with – I always fight with – postpartum depression.”

The majority of states offer paid parental leave dedicated to state employees. Iowa is a minority

Iowa is now in the minority of states which offers no parental leave paid to public employees, according to a statement of a better balance, a non -profit organization of legal advocacy which works on the problems of support for workers, such as paid leave policies.

He identifies 36 States and the District of Colombia which offer state employees a sort of dedicated paid leave for new parents, although some states offer it only for executive branches.

In nearby Kansas, the State provides eight weeks of remunerated leave to full -time and part -time workers who are the main care providers, while secondary caregivers receive four weeks.

And all federal employees have access to 12 weeks of parental leave paid after republican president Donald Trump signed the law during its first mandate.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief journalist of the monks register policy. Join it at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow it on x at @briannedmr.