Chico proposes more generous parental leave for city workers

BY FRAN SPIELMAN, CITY HALL REPORTER

Mayoral candidate Gery Chico wants City Hall to do a better job supporting working parents — even if it means saddling beleaguered Chicago taxpayers with an added burden.

As the city faces a $1 billion spike in pension payments and twice that much to replace lead service lines that carry water from the street to individual homes, Chico wants the City Council to extend parental leave offered to all city employees.

That includes not only pregnant mothers giving birth but fathers, partners and adopting parents.

For years, City Hall had no maternity policy for female employees. Instead, pregnant women had to store up unused sick days, vacation days and unpaid family leave, then rush back to work.

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office, one of the first things he did was order a review of employee leave policies with an eye toward offering paid maternity leave to the 10,767 women then on the city payroll.

Emanuel’s current policy is: six weeks of paid leave for women giving birth by caesarean; four weeks for natural birth mothers and two weeks for fathers and adopting parents.

Chico’s suggested change is more generous: 12 weeks of paid leave to all new parents — including moms, dads and adopting couples; and 16 weeks to women having caesarean sections.

Chico, former chief of staff under former Mayor Richard M. Daley, said he decided to champion the policy change after being approached by a city employee who had recently adopted a child and had to rush back to work after just two weeks of paid leave.

Chico could not be reached for comment on the cost of the more generous benefit or how he would pay for it.