Denton latest North Texas city to offer paid parental leave
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Denton recently approved six weeks of fully paid parental leave for city employees, joining other North Texas cities that offer the benefit.
Why it matters: Cities tend to have great retirement plans, but better benefit packages can help them compete with corporate institutions with larger hiring budgets.
Threat level: The CDC says Texas had 1,946 infant deaths in 2020, the most in the country.
- The state also has high maternal mortality rates, which impact Black women the most.
State of play: Paid family leave isn't a federally mandated benefit in the U.S., but we were close to getting it through the Build Back Better plan that fell apart last year.
- Through the Family and Medical Leave Act, parents have family and medical leave as an option, but it isn't paid. And employers can require that FMLA leave run concurrently with any paid days off.
- The Better Life Lab, which conducts research to advance work, care and gender equity, recommends 26 weeks of paid leave for the parents' well-being and 40 weeks for having the biggest reduction in infant mortality rates.
Zoom in: Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth told KERA that the city adopted the new parental leave policy to be more competitive in the job market.
- Plano, Frisco and Grapevine are among the North Texas cities that don't offer paid parental leave.
- Dallas and Fort Worth offer up to six weeks of paid leave for full-time employees having a baby, adopting a child or fostering a child.
Of note: The amount of paid leave offered by companies has increased in recent years, but the World Economic Forum says U.S. employers that increased parental leave benefits during the early pandemic years are now scaling back.