Mayor Eric Adams is doubling paid parental leave from six weeks 12 for non-union municipal workers and raising their pay retroactively, his administration said this week.
The expansion means roughly 10,000 municipal employees, many in managerial roles, will have 3 months of fully paid parental leave as well as paid family leave to care for sick family members. Workers will also receive annual pay raises of 3%, retroactively from May 2021 through 2025, and get a lump sum bonus of $3,000.
The boost, first reported by Politico, is the latest effort by City Hall to retain talent amid a persistent staffing shortage and ongoing budget cuts.
“My mother worked multiple jobs and raised six kids on her own in New York City,” Adams said in a statement. “The city didn’t do its part to help support our working-class family, but this administration will not continue the same mistakes of the past.”
The newly announced raises, bonuses and benefits brings the workers in line with their unionized counterparts — the majority of the city workforce — who already enjoy the benefits.
The city has seen an exodus of employees since the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting concerns that agencies offering critical services would become hollowed out if the trend was not reversed. Many employees have reported leaving for the private sector, where pay can be more competitive and hybrid work arrangements more commonplace.
Adams had initially expressed a reluctance to offer a remote work option early in his tenure before piloting the arrangement for some employees last year in a deal brokered with DC 37, the city’s largest municipal workers union. Like paid family leave, Adams later expanded the option to non-union city employees.
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