Georgia House approves paid paternal leave for state workers

(The Center Square) – The Georgia House approved a measure Tuesday that would allow state employees to take three weeks of paid paternal leave.

House Bill 146, which passed the House 155-2, is a follow-up attempt by lawmakers to implement paid paternal leave, which already is adopted on the federal level.

Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, who introduced the bill, called it a “positive step forward” for Georgia.

If HB 146 becomes law, state or local school board employees who worked at least 700 hours over the six months preceding the requested paid leave date can qualify for the paid time off after the birth of a child, adoption of a child or taking in of a foster child. The three weeks could be combined with other paid time off, but paid paternity leave could be granted only once a calendar year.

New York, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington and the District of Columbia offer paid paternal leave to state employees. Congress passed the Federal Employees Paid Leave Act in 2019, which gave federal government employees up to 12 weeks of paid paternal leave, starting in October 2020.

Some members of the Georgia House Committee on Health & Human Services wanted to extend the length of the leave to six weeks before advancing the bill to the full House.

Gaines said he wanted to keep the bill as is to ensure it passes by using the same language from legislation that cleared the House last year.

“I’d be happy to support another piece of legislation looking at further weeks, but I think that in order to get something on the books, this is where we should start,” Gaines told other members of the committee.

The House approved House Bill 1094 in March, but the measure was gutted by the Senate.

State employees may see more benefits coming their way this legislative session. Lawmakers have proposed a handful of measures that include pay raises, bonuses and other benefits for state employees.

Georgia’s amended fiscal year budget, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday, includes $1,000 bonuses for certain state employees and a 10% pay increase for corrections employees.

HB 146 now heads to the Senate for consideration.

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