As one of WREN’s top priorities in the 2023-2024 session, paid parental leave for education workforce built on WREN’s legislative successes of the Lactation Support Act, Pregnancy Accommodations Act, and Paid Leave for State Employees.
The bill received overwhelming bipartisan supports pregnant and parenting people in the workplace.
Paid family leave is crucial to supporting working families’ economic security, improving gender equity in the workplace, and improving recruitment and retention of our state employees.
Without paid leave, parents face the impossible choice of choosing between their financial well-being, and the well-being of a new child. No one should have to risk their job or face financial loss while welcoming a child into their family.
In the 2021 legislative session, WREN led efforts to secure South Carolina’s first parental leave legislation, guaranteeing 6 weeks of paid leave for over 55,000 state employees.
This was a monumental victory for a large and important part of South Carolina’s workforce and will have benefits for generations to come. However, one of the biggest questions we heard from our community was, ‘What about teachers?’ Our teachers are invaluable to South Carolina, and they deserve this basic benefit.
WREN and Palmetto State Teachers Association took that call to action seriously and with support from many other advocacy organizations and hundreds of advocates, we worked to make it a reality.
Beginning June, 26 2023 education workforce will be entitled to the following-
Teachers are a significant and crucial part of South Carolina’s workforce.
Going forward, we will work to expand the paid leave to benefit even more of South Carolina’s workers.