San Francisco, Twitter improve parental leave plans

Dive Brief:

On Tuesday, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to mandate six weeks of fully paid parental leave. And on very the same day, Twitter announced it would provide 20 weeks of paid leave to both genders beginning May 1.
According to the Washington Post, San Francisco's law will mandate that employers provide six weeks of fully paid leave to new parents of both genders, though it includes same-sex couples as well as adoptive parents. While some large employers and government agencies already provide similar benefits, smaller businesses in the city say it's a program they can’t afford.
While California already allows workers to receive 55% of their pay for up to six weeks for new parents (funding comes via a state program), the San Francisco law requires private employers to make up the full pay difference for six weeks.

Dive Insight:

The regulation will be phased in. Employers with 50 workers or more have until January 2017 to get rolling, while employers with 35-49 workers get a reprieve until July 2017. Small employers with 20 to 34 workers have until January 2018. Federal, state and municipal workers are not part of the law, because they have their own programs.

Twitter’s new policy gives fathers and adopting parents the same time off as mothers, and goes into effect May 1 for U.S. workers (all others no later than July 1). Twitter’s director of compensation and benefits, Laura Brady, told Fortune that Twitter may use outside experts to help managers adjust to the more generous parental leave policy.

“The goal of this change was to expand how we think about parental leave,” Jeffrey Siminoff, Twitter’s newly-appointed vice present of inclusion and diversity told Fortune. “Primary caregiving is something that’s hard to define.”

New York also made headlines this week with their new paid family leave law.