Courtney Witmer and her husband are first time parents. They welcomed their firstborn, Arya, at the end of last year. Witmer, a social media marketing manager at Penn State’s World Campus, said being new parents is exciting, but challenging.
“We knew that those first few weeks are really the hardest,” Witmer said. “You're navigating a whole new world of lack of sleep and this little being that can't tell you what it needs. And its only form of communication is crying, and your brain is literally wired to light on fire when it cries. And so, you're trying so hard to adapt.”
Like other Penn State staff, when Witmer had her baby in December, she had two choices. She could take 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act. Or, she could use her sick and vacation time to receive pay while on maternity leave.
Witmer said although having those options is important, the reality felt more limited.
“I sort of started looking at those numbers and saying, ‘OK, well, if I use all of my sick and all of my vacation, what happens when my baby comes and she has a problem? Or what happens just if she gets sick - babies get sick, you know - when I come back to work?” She said.
In January, Penn State announced it will begin to offer four weeks of paid parental leave to eligible staff members following a birth or an adoption of a child. The university’s separate policy that applies to faculty members has been in effect for decades.
Lorraine Goffe, vice president for human resources at Penn State, said the creation of this new policy results from feedback from university staff on their benefits.
“We understand the importance of bonding is healthy for the child, obviously, and also for the family and the wellbeing of the family. So it’s been important to them for a while and we have made it a priority,” Goffe said.
Goffe said paid parental leave is an added benefit that will serve both employees and the university.
“These kinds of benefits certainly help with recruiting and retention, absolutely. As we thought about this, it was really about making sure we provide the support to our families here at Penn State,” she said.
Goffe said the university looked at what other universities were offering when it decided to offer four weeks of paid leave. For comparison, Ohio State offers six weeks of paid leave to mothers and three to fathers. Rutgers offers no paid leave. And the University of Maryland gives new parents 12 weeks of paid leave.
Sam Chavanic, a communications strategist at Penn State, was working at a small firm in Chicago when her older son, Cameron, who’s 4, was born. She took two weeks off unpaid following Cameron’s birth and went back to work part time for another two weeks.
“And then for the last two weeks of the six week timeframe, when you're supposed to be on medical leave if you have maternity leave, I worked from home every day. And so I really didn't have much time with Cam completely off at all,” Chavanic said.
Her second baby, Colton, was born in February, too early for her to take advantage of the new parental leave policy. But she was able to plan for a 12-week paid leave, using sick and vacation time she has accrued since working at Penn State.
“I think it's working out to about 12 and a half weeks,” Chavanic said, adding that the financial stress that comes with having a new baby can be intense. “So I will be paid for every single one of those days that I'm off. It's a huge difference.”
Simon Haeder, a professor of public policy at Penn State and a father of two, said, historically, employers think of paid parental leave as not being worth the financial cost. But, increasingly, organizations are seeing the advantage of offering it.
“We’re in the central part of Pennsylvania. It's sometimes hard to attract qualified employees,” Haeder said. “And so I think it's a smart thing for the universities to add these kind of benefits because it will help you retain and attract people.”
Haeder said it’s good that individual employers are increasingly offering paid parental leave, but that change should come from state or federal government.
“The evidence is quite clear. We know this helps families to do better; it helps the children to do better. And these are effects that last over the lifetime of the family and the lifetime of the children. So I think it's really an important thing we should be addressing,” he said. “I'm glad that individual organizations are moving in this direction. Ideally, we find a national solution that addresses this kind of stuff.”
A 2017 report by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry found that more than two-thirds of employers didn’t offer any paid family leave, while Pennsylvanians across gender, age, income and marital statuses strongly support a statewide program that would grant the benefit.
Haeder said, for most workers in the United States, having some paid parental leave is better than nothing.
New mom, Witmer, said Penn State offering four weeks of paid parental leave is an exciting change, even though she couldn’t use it for her recent birth.
“For me, it was more exciting to think, ‘OK, well, the next time I have a child, this will be there for me,’” Witmer said.
Penn State said its new policy will not be affected by recent revenue losses caused by the coronavirus. The new policy will take effect on July 1.
