The proposal (SB 76), filed for consideration during the 2025 legislative session beginning in March, is identical to a bill she filed last year that was ignored by the state Legislature’s GOP leadership.
Currently, Florida’s state government employees have up to nine weeks of paid maternity leave for new mothers, or two weeks of paid parental leave for new fathers, following the birth or adoption of a child. The paid family leave program, announced by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office last September, requires employees to have worked for the state for at least one year.
Florida workers in the private sector aren’t guaranteed any paid parental leave at all.
Berman, who’s also refiled a proposal this year to guarantee universal free breakfast and lunch for public school students (SB 74), said she believes the paid parental leave permitted for state employees currently is “too short.”
“I’d like to make it easier and promote working mothers here in the state,” Berman told Orlando Weekly. “Often when there’s a short maternity period, people just quit their jobs.” This initiative, she hopes, “will encourage people to continue to work and be economically self-sufficient in our state.”
While an identical bill she filed last year (SB 128) failed to get scheduled for a single committee hearing — a process determined by the Legislature’s Republican leaders — Berman’s hopeful that under new state Senate and House leadership, there might be more of an appetite this year for her proposals.
“The House Speaker said he wants to focus on affordability for families,” Berman noted, referring to recent remarks from newly confirmed House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami. “This is certainly something that will help families here in the state,” she argued.
She also hopes that the state can “set an example” for private businesses in Florida, which aren’t required by any state or federal law to provide a single day of paid parental leave.
“I would love to see every business in the state of Florida do it,” she shared. Furthermore, because the current policy was approved by the Governor and Cabinet, but not through any form of legislation, Berman believes it’s important to codify state employees’ access to paid parental leave into state statutes.
“We need to set an example and show businesses that this is the kind of benefit that employees in Florida deserve,” said Berman, who was first elected to the state Senate in 2018 after serving four terms in the Florida House.
“We need to set an example and show businesses that this is the kind of benefit that employees in Florida deserve”
So maybe she’s onto something.
The United States is the only industrialized, high-income nation in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid parental or maternity leave for all workers — just 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. And that’s not even available for the entire U.S. workforce. Because of FMLA eligibility requirements, a majority of low-wage workers — roughly 60 percent — are believed to be ineligible.
Some states, however, have taken action on their own. According to the National Partnership for Women & Families, at least 13 states, plus Washington, D.C., have passed their own paid family leave laws as of July — Florida not included.
So nationwide, access in the private sector in particular remains poor. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, roughly three-quarters of private sector U.S. workers don’t have access to paid parental leave, leaving new parents in a difficult position following birth, fostering or adoption.
The Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, representing teachers and other school staff in local Orange County public schools, fought for paid parental leave during their own contract negotiations this year, but their request was rejected by school district and school board officials, who were concerned about the potential cost.
Even DeSantis, who’s made “empowering parents” a cornerstone of his administration as Governor, has admitted that as a father of three, the first few weeks for new parents and their children are “instrumental.” His office said in their announcement of state workers’ current policy last year that paid leave “improves both parental and infant health, including both physical health and well-being.”
Raising children in Florida is expensive, with childcare for just one child costing up to an estimated $10,000 to $17,500 per year, depending on the child’s age, county of residence, and whether they receive care through a center-based or home-based provider. If you’re a single parent or the only working adult in your household, you may not be able to afford to take unpaid leave.
The cost of giving birth alone can set you back thousands of dollars, and with most abortion care in Florida illegal after the sixth week of pregnancy, pregnant people with few resources — from money to reliable transportation — have even fewer options to avoid carrying to term an unwanted or nonviable pregnancy.
Berman, a mother, lawyer and former member of the Florida House, voted against Florida’s six-week abortion ban in 2023, and the 15-week abortion ban the state’s GOP-controlled state Legislature approved the year before that.
She said fellow Democrat Ashley Gantt plans to file paid leave legislation identical to her own in the Florida House, as she did last year, too. Both could be considered for adoption during the upcoming 2025 state legislative session.
“I think that people, you know, if they’ll have the benefit of having that extra time … then when they’re ready, they’ll be able to come back and be productive members of our workforce,” Berman said, in support of her state employee paid leave proposal.
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Proposals already filed for Florida’s 2025 legislative session include condo loopholes, chemtrails and more
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This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2024.
