Montgomery County announces strongest paid parental leave policy in Pennsylvania

County Commissioner and Chairperson Jamila Winder said her own experience as the parent of a young child informed the policy. She went through a C-section when she birthed her son Max, now 3, and had a complicated physical recovery. She was working in the private sector at the time and had to figure out with her husband how to take paid time off so they could spend time with their newborn child while continuing with their careers.

“It’s an adjustment for families, whether you’re the birthing parent, or the one that will be greeting your newborn when your new child comes home,” she said. “So we wanted to give equal credit and time to both parents at the time of delivery.”

Winder said the commissioners hope the private sector takes note.

“When you think about the lifeblood of your organization, which is your employees, these are the types of things that we need to do to show commitment and support of working families,” Winder said.

Attracting top talent to work with the county is one of the goals of the policy, Makhija said.

“I think that’s one of the reasons we’re all together on this, is it’s good policy for us as an employer to compete with the benefits that people see and other spaces and let people know that public service is an option, whereas they might have thought that they could only get these kinds of benefits in the private sector or elsewhere,” he said.

Tom DiBello is the county’s lone Republican commissioner. He supported the measure and said he hopes other local governments and the state government will replicate Montgomery County’s move.

“Hopefully, many state and local government agencies will see the policy that we put in place and follow this as we lead the charge,” he said.