Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, which includes the City of Pittsburgh, is the first county in the country to require employer-funded paid parental leave at the county level. Allegheny County Council voted 11-4 to pass the proposal, which includes the parental leave mandate as well as expanded paid sick leave requirements. County Executive Sara Innamorato signed the regulation on Oct. 22, with it taking effect after one year. Here is what employers must know about the final regulation, compliance, and the possibility of a legal challenge.
Quick Background
The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD’s) Board of Health voted unanimously in May to advance a sweeping proposal requiring Allegheny County employers to provide job-protected, paid parental leave. The Board subsequently revised the proposal and approved a scaled-back version on Sept. 28, and Allegheny County Council just approved that revised proposal on Oct. 20 after hearing about two-and-a-half hours of public comment and following months of contentious debates.
The County Council’s Vote
The 15-member County Council passed the regulation 11-4, with Councilors Jordan Botta, Lissa Geiger Shulman, Dan Grzybek, Bethany Hallam, Paul Klein, Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, John Palmiere, Bob Palmosina, Alex Rose, and Dewitt Walton voting in favor, and Councilors Aaron Adams, Pat Catena, Nick Futules, and Suzanne Filiaggi (the Council’s lone Republican) voting against. Under the Pennsylvania Local Health Administration Law, Council could not amend the regulation, so the version Council passed is identical to the Sept. 28 version approved by the Board of Health.
The regulation then moved to County Executive Sara Innamorato, who publicly supported the measure throughout the process. Innamorato signed the regulation on Oct. 22. The regulation takes effect one year after the signing date, giving covered employers a 12-month window to come into compliance.
Paid Parental Leave Requirements
- Employer Coverage: Only employers with 15 or more full-time or part-time employees are covered by the paid parental leave requirement. Employers below the 15-employee threshold are exempt from the parental leave mandate but remain subject to the paid sick leave changes described below.
- Employee Coverage and Geographic Threshold: An “employee” is defined as an individual who performs work within the geographic boundaries of Allegheny County for at least 80 hours in a year. Remote and hybrid employees whose employers are based elsewhere but who perform at least 80 hours of work in the County annually are covered.
- Employee Eligibility: Full-time employees must have worked for the employer for at least 180 days (six months), and part-time employees must have worked at least 625 hours during the preceding six months. Seasonal, temporary, and Construction Labor Union employees are excluded.
- Leave Length: Up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave per qualifying event.
- Rate of Pay: 100% of the employee’s wages, capped at $4,200 per week. Part-time employees are paid at their current hourly rate, multiplied by the average number of hours they worked in the six months before the leave request. The Board of Health retains authority to adjust the weekly cap by future regulation.
- Qualifying Events: Birth, adoption, or legal permanent placement of a child (including foster care), and stillbirth (defined as “fetal death”) are qualifying events. Both parents are eligible for leave following a qualifying event, including stillbirth. If both parents work for the same covered employer, they may take leave concurrently or consecutively.
- Window to Use the Leave: Leave must be taken within 12 months of the qualifying event. Leave may be taken in increments as long as it is completed within that 12-month window.
- Concurrent Use with FMLA: Allegheny County leave runs concurrently with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), so the maximum combined leave under both laws is 12 weeks (not 24).
- Implementation Period: All covered employers will have 12 months (from the date of the County Executive signing the regulation) to come into compliance. This 12-month implementation period applies regardless of the employer’s budget or fiscal cycle.
- Funding: The benefit is employer-funded. Employers may self-insure or satisfy the obligation through a private insurance plan that meets the regulation’s requirements.
Changes to Paid Sick Leave
The regulation also modifies Allegheny County’s existing paid sick leave rules. All employees, regardless of employer size, would accrue paid sick time at the faster rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked within the County (up from the current one hour for every 35 hours worked). Employers with 15 or more employees would cap accruals at 72 hours per year, and employers with fewer than 15 employees would cap accruals at 48 hours per year. Unlike the parental leave requirement, there is no small-employer exemption from the paid sick leave accrual changes.
Enforcement, Compliance Certification, and Legal Considerations
The regulation includes the following enforcement, appeal, and certification mechanisms:
- Fines: Employees who believe they have been unfairly excluded from parental leave may appeal to the County, which may then issue fines of up to $100 per violation per day.
- Stackable Penalties: For employers violating multiple provisions, penalties may accumulate, with an additional $100 per day imposed for each additional violation.
- Agency Appeal Process: If an employer denies a claim, the employee may file a complaint with the ACHD-designated agency, which has three business days to evaluate the claim. If the agency determines the employee is eligible, it may direct the employer in writing to provide the lawful amount of paid parental leave. The agency’s determination is a final agency action for purposes of appeal.
- Annual Compliance Certification: Beginning one year after the effective date, employers must file annual certifications with the agency confirming compliance with ACHD Article XXIV during the preceding year. This is a recurring compliance obligation not previously required under Allegheny County law.
- Anti-Retaliation Protections: The regulation enhances anti-retaliation protections, defining “retaliatory personnel action” broadly to include any threat, discipline, discharge, suspension, demotion, reduction of hours, or other adverse action taken against an employee for exercising rights related to paid sick leave or paid parental leave.
- Separate Benefit Required: Employers must provide designated paid parental leave separately from other paid leave offered by the employer, even where the employer’s paid time off policy would otherwise satisfy the accrual requirements.
Potential for Legal Challenges
The potential for legal challenge to ACHD’s authority to adopt a county-level paid parental leave requirement, in the absence of state-level enabling legislation, was raised publicly during and immediately after the Oct.20 vote. Councilman Aaron Adams, who voted against the regulation, stated that the requirement “could face a legal challenge,” similar to the years long legal battle over Pittsburgh’s 2015 paid sick leave law.
Any legal challenge would likely focus on the scope of ACHD’s authority under the Pennsylvania Local Health Administration Law, and on whether a county board of health may impose an affirmative wage-replacement obligation on private employers through a public health regulation. The Pittsburgh paid sick leave litigation ultimately upheld the municipal ordinance but took years to resolve and included a stop at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Employers should factor the possibility, and likely timing, of such a challenge into their internal planning, but should not delay compliance preparation on the assumption that litigation will succeed or delay the compliance deadline.
What Should Employers Do Now?
1. Confirm your coverage status: The 15-employee threshold removes many of the smallest employers from the paid parental leave requirement, but the paid sick leave accrual changes apply to all employers doing business within Allegheny Conty regardless of size.
2. Identify employees within the County: Employers should identify which employees perform at least 80 hours of work per year within the boundaries of Allegheny County, including remote, hybrid, and traveling employees whose employers may be located outside the County.
3. Compare your current parental leave policy to the regulation: Evaluate whether your existing paid parental leave benefit meets or exceeds the regulation’s 12-week length, 100% wage replacement capped at $4,200 per week, six-month service requirement, and coverage of all qualifying events, including stillbirth. If your current policy is below the regulation’s floor on any dimension, now is the time to plan the update.
4. Decide between self-insurance and a private insurance plan: Employers may self-insure the obligation or purchase a private plan that meets the regulation’s requirements. Insurance products designed for this market are beginning to emerge. Employers should evaluate both options with their broker and benefits counsel, keeping in mind that the $4,200 weekly cap sets the maximum per-employee exposure.
5. Draft and roll out a written policy by the compliance deadline: Covered employers will need a written paid parental leave policy that is separate from, and does not substitute for, other paid time off. The policy should address eligibility, qualifying events (including stillbirth), concurrency with FMLA, the request and documentation process, and the anti-retaliation protections.
6. Update handbooks, posters, and employee communications: Allegheny County will likely issue a required workplace poster and additional guidance before the one-year compliance deadline. Employers should plan to update their employee handbooks and benefit summaries to reflect the new entitlement, and to communicate the change to the workforce in advance of the effective date.
7. Train HR, payroll, and front-line managers: Managers and HR professionals who process leave requests, calculate wage replacement, and administer concurrent FMLA leave will need training on the mechanics of the County benefit, the 80-hour geographic eligibility rule, and the recordkeeping needed to support the annual compliance certification.
8. Build the annual compliance certification into your calendar: Beginning one year after the effective date, employers will be required to file an annual certification of compliance with the Agency. Employers should build the certification into their annual HR compliance calendar now and begin maintaining the documentation that will support the certification.
9. Prepare for multilayered compliance: County employers should prepare for a scenario in which the County rule, a future state law, and the FMLA would all apply to the same leave event. The regulation’s concurrency provision is specific to the FMLA and does not address future state-level paid family leave requirements. The Pennsylvania Family Care Act remains pending in the General Assembly.
10. Monitor for a legal challenge: Employers should not delay compliance preparation on the assumption that litigation will succeed or will delay the one-year compliance deadline but should factor the possibility of a challenge into their planning.
Raeann Burgo and Patrick W. Dennison are attorneys with Fisher Phillips in Pittsburgh © 2026 Fisher Phillips. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.
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