Bank of America makes a huge move for new parents. Will the rest of corporate Charlotte follow?

This is paid time, doesn’t count against vacation days, available to both mothers and fathers, and includes leave after adoptions.

The Charlotte bank is also “adding flexibility for parents to take time off when it works best for their family.”

According to a memo sent to bank employees. One change: Parents can choose to split their parental leave into two different segments, within 12 months of when the child arrives.

That’s in addition to the company’s already generous childcare benefits. BofA also offers up to $8,000 in adoption reimbursement, up to $240/month subsidized day care and back-up childcare.

Will Charlotte’s corporate community respond?

Bank of America’s biggest competitors for talent are blue chippers like Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Facebook — many of which have been expanding parental leave over the past two years. The new policy at BofA now matches that at Facebook.

But as Charlotte’s largest company, the bank is also setting the tone locally. We’ll see if the city’s other corporate citizens start trying to match this.

Not many local companies do fully paid parental leave. Duke Energy said Wednesday they’re benchmarking and reviewing whether to change its policy this year.

Like most companies, Duke Energy doesn’t really have a formal parental leave policy, but covers people through a combination of short-term disability and accrued vacation days. Wells Fargo is like this, as are the city and county.

We’ll see if that changes.