Allegheny County Adopts Employer-Funded Paid Parental Leave Law

On October 22, 2026, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato signed legislation to establish a mandatory paid parental leave program, which also expands Allegheny County’s paid sick leave law.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania is the first locality to adopt its own paid parental leave law in the absence of any state-level mandate. The new law further stands out in that it does not fund the program with payroll tax contributions, but instead requires employers to bear the full cost of funding the required leave benefits.

As enacted, the legislation is not as far-reaching as originally proposed (and described in our previous blog post); an extended public comment period, a public hearing, and “an unprecedented flood of written comments” from community business leaders led to compromises that that narrowed the scope of the legislation. The enacted legislation reduced the paid parental leave benefit from 18 weeks to 12 weeks, narrowed the employee eligibility requirements, and created a small business exemption.

Below is an overview of what the new law will require of employers when it takes effect, just under a year from now.

Paid Parental Leave Requirements

The new paid parental leave component of Article XXIV of the Allegheny County Health Department’s (ACHD) Rules and Regulations provides the parental leave benefit under the following terms:

Covered Employers: Employers who are “situated or doing business” in Allegheny County and have at least 15 employees must provide paid, job-protected parental leave to eligible employees.

Eligibility: Eligible employees consist of: (i) full-time employees who have worked for six months and (ii) part-time employees who have worked 625 hours over a six-month period with the employer. Full-time and part-time employees who work fewer than 80 hours within Allegheny County in a year, as well as temporary and seasonal employees, are ineligible.

Duration: Eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks of paid, job-protected leave for qualifying events.

Qualifying Events: The circumstances contemplated by the law are birth, stillbirth, adoption, or foster placement of a child.

Scheduling: Eligible employees may request paid parental leave during the 12-month period following a qualifying event. Employers must issue a decision about the request within 10 business days of receipt.

Pay: While on leave, employees are entitled to their regular base rate, up to a cap of $4,200 per week, with continued employment benefits. For part-time employees, the leave amount is based on average weekly hours over the six months before the request. The first payment is due no later than the pay cycle after the scheduled start of leave.

Notice: Employers must provide written notice of the leave requirements both when an employee is hired and annually. Further, employers must supply a written acknowledgment when an employee requests leave.

Recordkeeping: Employers must file an annual compliance certification with Allegheny County beginning one year after the law’s effective date and must retain records for two years.

Funding: Notably, Allegheny County requires employers to fund the benefit directly. Employers may choose to cover expenses out-of-pocket, self-insure, or purchase private insurance from a paid parental leave insurer. This makes Allegheny County’s law unique among paid parental leave laws nationwide; most have funding structures featuring publicly pooled insurance funds.

Anti-Retaliation: The preexisting paid sick leave law’s anti-retaliation provision, which creates a rebuttable presumption of unlawful retaliation when an employer takes adverse action within 90 days of an employee’s protected activity, also applies to the paid parental leave law. The anti-retaliation provision prohibits employers from retaliating or discriminating against employees who exercise their rights under the paid parental leave law, including submitting a leave request or taking leave, or alleging a violation of the law.

Enforcement: Employees may sue their employer for violations of the new paid parental leave requirement. A successful claim can result in an award of damages and other relief, including reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Violations may also be subject to administrative fees of up to $100 per day.  

Amendments to the County’s Paid Sick Leave Policy

The legislation also revised Allegheny County’s paid sick leave requirements. These changes, which will become effective in October 2027, include faster accrual of sick time and expansion of the program to employers with fewer than 15 employees. Specifically:

• Employers with at least 15 employees must provide up to 72 hours of paid sick leave per year. Employers with under 15 employees – previously exempt from the paid sick leave law – now must provide up to 48 hours of paid sick leave per year.
• Employees accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, rather than the current rate of one hour for every 35 hours worked.
• Employers cannot satisfy the sick leave requirement with a paid-time-off policy, but instead must provide separately designated paid sick leave.

How to Prepare for Compliance

Unless the Allegheny County Council sets earlier deadlines, Employers must comply with these changes by mid-October 2027.

We recommend that employers with any presence in Allegheny County take the necessary steps to comply. This includes:

• Review and revise leave-related procedures and policies;
• Prepare required notices;
• Update recordkeeping practices;
• Monitor the Allegheny County Health Department’s guidance page for updated compliance tools;
• Analyze and prepare for the potential fiscal impact of both the paid parental leave and the expanded paid sick leave requirements; and
• Determine whether to pay for the benefit out-of-pocket, or self-insure, or purchase private insurance from a paid parental leave insurer.

We will continue to monitor and comment should Allegheny County update its guidance or propose additional measures.

Taylor Justice (Law Clerk – Admission Pending) in the firm’s Columbus office and Staff Attorney Elizabeth A. Ledkovsky contributed to the preparation of this article.

If you have questions, please reach out to the author(s).

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If you have questions, please reach out to the author(s).

The Workforce Bulletin blog is currently edited by Scott J. Connolly, Adam S. Forman, Greta Ravitsky, Elizabeth S. Torkelsen, and Jennifer Stefanick Barna.