Pa. workers still aren’t guaranteed paid family leave, unlike their neighbors in N.J. and Del.

As a growing number of states, including New Jersey, have created paid family and medical leave programs, Pennsylvania remains without one.

The Delaware Paid Leave program started distributing benefits this year, after the state passed legislation in 2022. Maryland also passed a leave law in 2022. The program experienced a delay and benefits are expected to become available in 2028.

New Jersey created its own paid leave program long before that, in 2008, becoming only the third state to do so.

Since 2002, 14 U.S. states have passed paid family and medical leave laws. Nationwide, nearly 1 in 3 private sector employees are now covered by state mandated leave policies, according to a recent report from the nonprofit National Partnership for Women and Families.

“All workers will at some point need paid leave, whether for their own health or to care for loved ones,” the report notes. “But when access is not guaranteed, the workers least likely to have paid leave also tend to be those who are likely to face greater health and caregiving challenges and have fewer financial resources to fall back on.”

The report noted that just 23% of Black workers have access to state-mandated leave coverage, compared with 29% of white workers and 41% of Latinx workers.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 ensures eligible workers can take 12 weeks of unpaid time off. With no federal policy providing for paid time off, states have created their own programs, each with its own rules around who is eligible, what events qualify for leave, how much time can be used, and who pays into the program.

Pennsylvania is among six states where efforts to create family and medical leave programs have “the most momentum,” according to the report. If all six passed leave laws, 62.8 million U.S. workers would have access to state-mandated leave. The other five are Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, and Virginia.

Pennsylvania House lawmakers introduced a bill last year to secure paid family and medical leave, but the legislation stalled. It wasn’t the first time such an effort floundered.

In Philadelphia, many residents are combining several forms of leave for parental time off, according to a report published by the city’s Department of Public Health in October. The report, based on a 2022 survey of 552 new parents, said the median leave a parent took was 11.5 weeks and roughly half of that time was unpaid.

The report noted that 38% of those surveyed said they couldn’t afford to take leave, and 30% said their jobs didn’t offer paid parental leave. Nearly a quarter of respondents said they feared losing their jobs if they took more leave, or for some, any leave at all.

Meanwhile, some employers in the Philadelphia area have added or increased paid parental leave in recent years.

In 2021, Philadelphia municipal workers in AFSCME District Council 33 secured four weeks of paid parental leave for the first time.

The city also increased paid parental leave for thousands of city workers from four to six weeks in 2023.

Pennsylvania state government workers saw their paid parental leave increase from six to eight weeks in 2024. The state first offered its employees paid parental leave in 2020 under former Gov. Tom Wolf.

“Paid parental leave not only provides financial security and healthier outcomes during a joyful time in our workers’ lives, but also bolsters the Commonwealth’s hiring, recruitment, and retention efforts as we strive to be one of the top employers in the nation,” Neil Weaver, the state’s secretary of the Office of Administration said in a statement in 2024.

Philadelphia teachers first got paid parental leave added to their contract last year, starting with five weeks. Prior to that, as The Inquirer reported in 2023, school district employees had to save up sick days and budget for unpaid time off when preparing to welcome a child. The union for Philly principals also last year reached a contract including paid parental leave for the first time.

The union for WHYY workers got three more weeks of parental leave in their most recent contract in 2024, increasing to nine weeks. University of Pennsylvania graduate student workers secured six weeks of paid medical leave and eight weeks of paid parental leave in their first union contract earlier this year.

At Comcast, based in Center City, employees can get up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave and phase back into work with some flexibility. Employees can choose a reduced schedule with up to two unpaid days per week for four weeks as they return to work.

Campbell’s, headquartered in Camden, offers employees up to 10 weeks of paid parental leave. And when they return to work, they have access to an on-site childcare facility.