3468 BRODHEAD ROAD SLflE 9

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
HARRISBURG

December22, 2016

Speaker Mike Turzai

Room 139, Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg PA 17120-2028
Dear Speaker Turzai,
I received the attached letter from a caucus attorney in response to my Nov. 1 0 maternity leave benefits letter.
In summary, it contains a lengthy resuscitation of our antiquated maternity leave policy coupled with statistics
handpicked to support a pre-determined decision. The letter foreshadows bloated implementation costs for my
recommended changes. Not only was the narrow response unfair to the mothers and future mothers employed by
the House Republican Caucus, it reinforces the need for a revision of our leave policy.
It does not take an attorney to conclude that our caucus does not have a maternity leave policy. Rather, we
provide guidelines for limited use of sick days and/or vacation days when giving birth to a child. Anyone
who has gone through, or been present for, a birth knows it is no vacation nor is it the result of an illness. For the
sake of those who work hard to help us serve the people of Pennsylvania, we should no longer treat it as such.
Moreover, the most striking part of your letter is that it characterized our leave policy as generous. Mr.
Speaker, we both know what generous family benefits look like, as both our wives employers provide 12 weeks
of paid maternity leave. Generous is the 16 weeks of paid leave allotted to moms employed by Ikea and
Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank; its the ten weeks of paid leave that Hilton moms receive; and its even the six
weeks of 100% paid leave offered to moms employed by Chobani. Forcing our employees to drain their sick
and/or vacation time is far from generous.
Lastly, weve all seen the tactic of bloated implementation costs used to negate positive change. During my first
term, you helped me refute this approach when Governor Ed Rendell used bloated implementation costs as his
excuse for opposing my PennWATCH proposal. As a caucus, we upheld the fight for transparency and
eventually moved state government into the 21st century. It is my hope that we can work together to move our
HR policies into the 21st century as well.
While you may find my persistence on this issue frustrating, I will not give up this fight. I implore you to
reconsider your resistance to paid maternity leave benefits for the sake of the hard-working mothers and their
families, who sacrifice daily to help us serve the people of Pennsylvania.
Sincerely,

J
CHRISTIANA
State Representative
15th
Legislative District

Good afternoon.
As you may be aware, the Speaker and the Leader received correspondence from Representative
Jim Christiana on November 10, 2016 requesting that the Republican Caucus adopt a policy that
allfemale employees receive 12 weeks ofpaid leave with 100 percent oftheir salary after
delivery [of a childj. His request would provide a benefit over-and-above the Caucus current
leave entitlement policies.
Since that time, we have looked at the issue and conducted an initial analysis of adopting such a
policy. Some highlights of this initial research include the following:

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 12 percent of employees in America have

access to some kind of paid family leave through their employer.

A recent NCSL study on the issue indicates that three states California, New Jersey and
Rhode Island currently require some form of paid family and medical leave. New York
passed a law in 2016 and will begin requiring paid leave in 2018. Washington State
passed a paid family leave law in 2007 which would have paid up to $250 per week for
five weeks, however, it was not implemented and is now postponed indefinitely.

None of Pennsylvanias three branches of government offer a paid leave benefit beyond
the days of leave an employee accrues over time (e.g. normal vacation and sick
leave). As an aside, the Administration previously allowed employees to take up to six
months of unpaid leave while keeping their benefits. But, the Administration recently
replaced that benefit with something substantially more restrictive.

While it does not apply to legislative employees, the federal Family Medical Leave Act
(FMLA) requires employers with more than 50 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of
unpaid family medical leave (this includes maternity) each year.

Although the FMLA does not apply to the Caucus, we have developed a similar policy
based on the federal law which allows employees up to 12 weeks of paid or unpaid leave
following the birth or adoption of a child. Up to 24 additional weeks of paid or unpaid
leave may be authorized if the employee requires more time to recover from a serious
health condition.

As it specifically relates to the House Republican Caucus, our leave accrual policies are
fairly generous. Full time employees of the caucus accrue leave time for annual, sick
and personal leave; and, are eligible for shared leave and donated leave under
certain circumstances. If you would like a summary of the Caucus employee leave
policies, one can be provided upon request.

Based on a preliminary analysis, 12-weeks of salary and benefits to the average number
of employees who go on maternity leave in a given year would amount to approximately
S327,000 annually.

Given the information gathered thus far, we have been directed to contact the actuarial firm that
the House utilizes for mailers such as these to provide a more detailed analysis of these
issues. Specifically, we will seek an analysis:

Identifying the options available to provide a specific matemity leave benefit beyond
what is currently offered to employees.

Quantifying the impact on the Caucus budget for each available option.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please contact us.

Best regards,

James 6. Mann, Esquire

Republican Chief Counsels Office
(717)783-1510 Phone
(717) 783-7728 Fax