The Alabama Senate on Thursday approved giving eight weeks of paid maternity leave to state employees and teachers, but the votes were largely symbolic and the bill’s advancement to the House was blocked.
There are three legislative days remaining in the legislative session.
Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, last month filed a bill to give 12 weeks paid leave to female and male teachers for the birth of a baby, adoption, miscarriage or stillbirth.
Senate Bill 305 was amended in a Senate committee to include state employees and to give six weeks to women for births and six weeks for women or men for adoptions. Rep. Ginny Shaver’s paternity leave proposal for state employees had also been scaled back by a Senate committee from eight weeks to six.
Currently, teachers and state employees can use their paid leave for the birth of a child. Teachers earn about 10 days of paid time off per year. This is the first year paid maternity leave has received significant discussion in either chamber.
On the Senate floor Thursday, Figures said the bill was unlikely to make it through the House in the remaining week of the session but she urged Senate passage to send a message.
“We’re not expecting this bill to pass the House, but for good measure, I would like us to pass it out to show we’re working on it,” she told her colleagues.
Figures was able to amend the bill to eight weeks of paid leave and to include leave for women who suffer stillbirths.
Some lawmakers raised concern about the potential cost of eight weeks of leave. It wasn’t factored into the education or General Fund budgets for fiscal 2025.
The Senate passed the bill, but this late in the session, any bill approved in its chamber of origin needs another unanimous vote of support to transmit it to the other chamber. Figures requested that vote and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, voted no.
“That stings,” Figures said.
Reed thanked Figures for her efforts, but cited the timing and the lack of a cost estimate in stopping it.
Figures said she’d be back with the bill next year.
Earlier this week, Allison King, government relations manager for the Alabama Education Association, said the organization wants to see the leave conversations continue.
“Our educators spend so much time and effort giving to other people’s children, and paid parental leave gives our state the opportunity to support them with their own children as well,” King said.
“Even if this legislation doesn’t make it across the finish line this session, the topic has certainly generated a lot of meaningful conversation, and we would hope to see it as an added benefit in the future for our educators that give so much to our schools and communities.”