North Carolina Governor Orders Paid Parental Leave for State Employees
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an executive order Thursday permitting full-time state government employees to take up to eight weeks off after adopting or having a child.
Executive Order 95 also provides 4 weeks of paid parental leave to the non-child bearing parent to care for and bond with a newborn, adopted, or foster child.
The order signed by Cooper, a Democrat, takes effect on September 1, at which time approximately 56,000 employees will be eligible for paid leave.
“This new paid parental leave policy will give state employees more time to recover from childbirth and give their newborns the care and attention they need,” Cooper said as he signed the order.
“It will help reduce gender inequality in our workplaces. And it will help our state attract and retain a strong workforce,” he said.
It comes in the wake of an unsuccessful attempt by Democrats in the state House to provide up to eight weeks paid parental leave for full-time state employees and up to four weeks for part-time employees.
But in the Republican-controlled body, that legislation died in committee.
Expanding parental leave in the state was one of Cooper’s promises during his successful 2016 bid to unseat incumbent Republican Governor Pat McCrory.
