As public and private employers across Kentucky increasingly offer paid parental leave, tens of thousands of Kentucky state workers are forced to use paid sick leave, vacation time and even unpaid leave to spend important time with a new child.
This deprives parents and babies of necessary bonding time and puts the state at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to attracting and retaining a high-quality work force, according to a new report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KyPolicy) entitled “The Case for Paid Parental Leave for Kentucky State Employees.”
“Paid parental leave has countless benefits for workers, children and families,” said Dustin Pugel, co-author of the report and KyPolicy’s Policy Director. “The lack of this benefit for state workers only makes employee turnover and hiring difficulties worse. And when state government is short-staffed, essential public services that we all rely on become less efficient and harder to use.”
The KyPolicy report shows that paid parental leave programs have become commonplace in Kentucky at employers similar to state government. Among the private and public entities offering paid parental leave are:
• Northern Kentucky University, Bellarmine University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and the public school districts of Jefferson, Fayette, Franklin and Oldham counties.
• Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, the City of Frankfort and Louisville Metro Government.
• Norton Healthcare and UK Healthcare, along with large private companies Amazon, Humana, Ford and Lexmark.
A paid parental leave program would also put Kentucky in line with other states. In fact, all but one of Kentucky’s surrounding states offers paid family leave to state employees.
KyPolicy’s report shows that providing a paid parental leave policy would cost the state little-to-nothing and could lead to gains in employee retention and productivity. It also notes that a paid parental leave policy could be implemented through an administrative regulation or through legislation, such as what was proposed in Senate Bill (SB 142) during the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly.
Read the full report at kypolicy.org.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy