It’s happening, you guys!

I’m at a press conference right now where Mayor Ed Murray is expected to announce a new family leave policy offering all city employees paid time off when they have a child. Multiple sources at City Hall tell me it’s going to be four weeks of paid leave, and that it’s already been agreed to by the mayor's office and the union representing city employees, who are currently in contract negotiations. (I don’t know yet whether this will also apply to people who need time off to take care of a sick family member, as some family leave policies do.)

It’s about damn time. This is something the mayor has acknowledged we should be doing right now to ensure equal opportunity for women who work at the city, and as a nation we’re terribly behind on paid leave for new parents.

At today’s announcement, the mayor is also expected to release the results of a new city-commissioned study about paid parental leave, which was supposed to be done by the end of last year.

I’ll have a post with more details after the press conference.