Taking Paternity Leave

“I have an employee whose wife will be having their baby in 4 months and he’s asking about taking paternity leave. Do I have to allow him time off?”

My HR Survival Tip

Maternity leave is protected by California’s pregnancy leave law because it’s classified as a medical short term disability. However, the person who isn’t medically disabled by birth has fewer options.

There are only a few laws that apply to paternity leave:

• FMLA (Family/Medical Leave Act) provides up to 12 weeks off for baby bonding and protects the employee’s job during that time. However, this law only applies to companies who have 50+ employees within a 75-mile radius.
• CFRA (California Family Rights Act) is nearly the same as the federal law and typically runs concurrently with FMLA. Again, it’s for companies of 50 or more.
• Paid Sick Leave provides up to 24 hours of leave to care for the baby (or mother) but really isn’t intended for paternity leave.

Companies seem to either allow an unpaid personal leave, allow accrued vacation time to be taken, or just refuse the request for time off. A personal leave has no legal protections but I wouldn’t recommend allowing it if you don’t intend to hold the job open for the employee’s return. If you allow unpaid personal leave for paternity leave, be consistent with the maximum amount of time allowed.

While paternity leave may not be legally required for smaller companies, requests for having time off when a baby is born is becoming very popular. I would highly recommend adding 2 weeks of paternity/spousal leave as a benefit even if the time is unpaid.