Few proposed policies have received as fervent a reaction as a recent proposal by the Allegheny County Health Department to require businesses to offer 18 weeks of paid parental leave. About 1,400 substantive public comments were submitted, a record number in recent memory according to county leaders in the last two administrations. Allegheny County leaders have said they will be looking at these comments carefully ahead of potential autumn votes on the plan.
Public Source requested the comments using the Right-to-Know Law, then read them all. We identified whether the commenters were in favor, opposed or wanted to see changes to the policy before they could support it. (Around 100 other comments were either repeated or didn’t clearly state a position.)
A majority support the proposal: For every commenter in opposition, around two were in favor. About 1 in 10 people said the policy should be changed before it’s enacted.
The biggest share of comments came from parents, business owners and health care workers.
But the comments also included dozens of ideas about how to adjust the policy to make it better. And the comments included a number of very personal descriptions from parents and business owners that highlighted the challenge of crafting a policy that takes into account every perspective.
18 weeks of leave after four weeks of work?
For example, a number of business owners said they didn’t think it was fair to give 18 weeks of paid leave to an employee who had only worked for them a month. The Family and Medical Leave Act, some noted, kicks in when an employee logs 12 months on a job. They worried that they would have to pay to hire and train an employee who went on leave almost immediately – which could be especially problematic in jobs with high turnover.
“This is the piece that concerns me most,” according to Krissy Danburg and her husband, of YogaSix South Hills and Wexford. The Danburgs worry they would pay for employees to go on leave and then see those same employees give notice shortly after returning from leave. “As written, there’s no clawback or repayment mechanism if that happens,” they said.
But some workers believe that longer requirements would hurt parents merely hit by bad luck.
One commenter said she and her husband both had to switch jobs within the same year and neither were eligible for FMLA leave. Another commenter, Katherine Beers, said she unexpectedly lost her job when her employer went bankrupt, which sent her on a three-month job hunt.
“Despite finding a supportive new employer, it was one of the most difficult periods of my life,” Beers said. “Instead of being able to solely focus on recovering physically, bonding with my newborn, and adjusting to first-time parenthood, I was navigating job loss, job searches, interviews and the demands of returning to work in a brand new position.”
Which people are in favor of the policy – and who is opposed?
Parents and business owners were the biggest contributors of comments – with the vast majority of parents supporting it and businesses opposing it.
“When I had my daughter 15 years ago I was waiting tables,” said Wendy Kennedy. “I did not receive leave. I was lucky enough to have some jewelry to sell to pay my rent for a month, but ultimately, I went back to work early so that we could afford luxuries like food and electricity.”
About a quarter of business owners said they would support parental leave if the policy was changed in ways that would decrease or eliminate their share of the burden. Jeff Fecko, of MPF Insurance, said there should be exceptions for small businesses and that the length of the leave should be cut down to 12 weeks.
“Unlike larger companies, which often have greater staffing flexibility and financial resources to absorb these costs, small businesses have far less ability to redistribute workloads or cover extended absences,” Fecko said.
Joanna “Jo” Deming of Hope & Action Consulting worked for an organization that was too small for her to qualify for FMLA – and a small business exception would exclude parents like her. “I had the saving grace of being able to work from home and at times bring my child in person to meetings,” she said. “While some people were warm and supportive, others let me know that they ‘felt bad for my son.’”
Most commenting business owners who are also parents still don’t like the parental leave policy. “I have two daughters myself and had to figure out how to handle them with zero paid parental leave,” said Matt Marietti, of De Fer Coffee & Tea. “Aren’t those benefits typically funded by taxpayers as opposed to this, which is essentially a tax on the principles of small businesses?”
Not all business leaders oppose paid parental leave. Dolores Dudiak, a vice president of human resources at the investment firm Federated Hermes, wrote in support of the proposal. “Since our founding in 1955,” Dudiak said, “we have strived to demonstrate those commitments ourselves, as we have grown to employ more than 2,000 people — most right here in Allegheny County.”
The vast majority of health care workers — a major share of commenters — support the proposal. Celia Emmons, a lactation consultant at Magee Women’s Hospital, said she recently had a patient who couldn’t afford to take FMLA because it was unpaid. “This mom strongly desires to breastfeed, and meet public health goals of exclusive breastfeeding for six months,” she said. “However, she’s concerned about balancing pumping and working.”
All 23 people who identified themselves as both a parent and health care worker support the proposal. Kaitlyn, a nurse at UPMC whose last name was redacted, said she received only two weeks of maternity leave. (UPMC last week extended parental leave to four weeks.) She could have taken six weeks of additional leave with 60% of her pay through short-term disability but said her family needed her full income to pay the mortgage. “I felt guilty as a mother for leaving my child while she was still so little,” she said. “I went into a depression.”
The handful of parents who said they didn’t support parental leave tended to be either business owners – or from an older generation. Marie McKinsey said she had her three children in the 1980s. That was a time, she said, when there was little infant care and her family was too old to help. And so she left her full-time job for the first 14 years of parenthood and found a part-time job. “We sacrificed and spent wisely,” she said.
Some comments expressed conflicting feelings about the proposal. “As a woman and the mother of three adult children I realize that my position may be betraying my sisters in childcare,” said Merritt Bailey, a childcare center director. “But without financial support from the state were this proposal to become law, I fear many centers will close.”
Too small, too new, too specialized, too constrained, too poor
Some business owners said their businesses were too small to afford the new benefit. “We are hoping to continue to grow to get our business to a stable place where we can pay such benefits,” said Nick Lubecki, whose farming business has four employees. “But if you exempt very small businesses, this will allow us the breathing room to survive to the point where we can thrive and pay these benefits.”
Chloe Newman, of Third Space Bakery, said she considers her business a progressive business and wants to offer parental leave at some point but doesn’t see how she can make it work right now. “I truly struggle with this reality, as someone who would love to start a family in the next few years, yet who is constrained by personal finances and the burden of what stepping away from my job even temporarily would mean,” she said.
Some organizations say the new policy would mean cutting services. Mark Heinbockel, of Anchorpoint Counseling Ministry, said he had two employees who were pregnant in the first half of 2026. If the new policy was already in place, he said, “To support these costs, Anchorpoint would have been forced to reduce staff and cut critical mental health care services to neighbors battling anxiety, depression, grief, trauma and other needs.”
Some businesses say they will be impacted more than others because it’s much harder to find replacement workers. “You are asking me to find qualified help — a registered architect — who, by sheer magic, has 18 free weeks to help us before moving on to new adventures,” said Bea Spolidoro of Fisher ARCHitecture.
Daniel Hill, of House Call Personal Training, doesn’t see how the math can work for his business. “Our trainers are paid $45 per client session, which is already nearly 50% of the total session price,” he said. “If an employee is on paid parental leave and another trainer has to cover the same session, labor alone could consume nearly 100% of the revenue from that session.”
Some businesses said they will only be able to cover the costs if they raise prices. Eric Douglas, of Trinity Christian School, said the school would have to increase tuition. “In practical terms, this proposal would transfer resources from families — many of whom are making significant economic sacrifices to afford private education — to employees who generally have higher household incomes than many of the families we serve,” Douglas said.
Parents burdened by stress, sickness and abuse
A number of parents said the birthing process is unnecessarily stressful without access to paid parental leave. “We worry about work, we worry about being ‘approved’ for time off, we worry about if our pay during leave will still support our homes,” said Ariyana Arnett. “It’s a lot. I believe the 18 weeks paid parental leave would provide an enormous amount [of] weight off of employees shoulders.”
Some parents said the lack of leave is putting their family’s health at risk. Kelly Moore said her nonprofit offered her only one week of maternity leave and then she had to use all of her paid time off. “This meant that upon returning to work, I did not have any time available to take off in the event of illness of myself or my baby,” she said.
Marcela Souza, a doula who supports families postpartum, said without parental leave some women “ended up very dependent on the health insurance and salary of the husband. In many cases, the husband became an unsafe and unreliable person. I’ve seen incredibly capable women end up in shelters or into a long, deep, abusive home situation because of the vulnerability of postpartum.”
Octavia Liku contributed reporting to this story.
Oliver Morrison is the health and environment reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at oliver@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Katherine Weaver.
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