Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs expands paid family leave for state employees

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced on Thursday that eligible State of Arizona employees can now access paid parental leave.

The pilot program went into effect last week. It will provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave.  Parental leave is available following the birth of a child. In addition, employees can use benefits for new placement of a foster or adoptive child with the employee’s family.

Hobbs committed to extending paid family leave for state employees from the start of her administration.

“I believe that a workplace that supports its working families is one that is best equipped to serve the people of Arizona and we are going to continue finding ways to support our state’s talented public servants,” Hobbs said in a press release.

What do the State of Arizona’s paid family leave benefits include?

The state increased the amount of accrued sick leave.

Employees can use time to care for a sick spouse, dependent child or parent in a given calendar year.

It increased from 40 hours to 480 hours of earned leave.

In addition, the state is removing the restriction for families where both spouses are state employees, now allowing them to each utilize the 12 weeks of Family and Medical Leave Act benefits, instead of sharing them.

“These new paid family leave benefits allow more flexibility for state employees and prioritize important bonding time for families,” Elizabeth Alvarado-Thorson, Director of ADOA said in a press release. “It will also strengthen the state’s retention and recruitment efforts and keep the state competitive for top talent.”

The program will allow the state to gain a better understanding of the impacts through data collection and agency feedback.

Eligible employees include those in the State Personnel System who have worked for a state agency for a total of 12 months during the past seven years and who have worked a minimum of 1250 hours during the past year.