Returning to the Council Chambers after the birth of her son, Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata filed a new ordinance that would provide city employees with their full salary for the entire duration of their Paid Parental Leave.

Currently, new parents are offered 12 weeks of paid leave, with their salary decreasing by 25% every four weeks unless they use separately earned sick time. Under Coletta Zapata’s ordinance, both parents would receive their full pay for the entire period, and updated non-gendered language would be added to the City Code.

“City employees should feel that Boston is supporting them as they take on this important new role, rather than forcing them to sacrifice their economic security,” she said. “Strengthening the City’s current Paid Parental Leave policy to provide full base pay for the entire 12-week period is an important step toward supporting working families and creating a more equitable workplace.”

The Councilor said that becoming a mom gave her a much more tangible understanding of how important those first few weeks are and how quickly expenses mount. While talking with other parents in the public sector, she found consistent frustration with the lack of postpartum support.

She called the ordinance an economic necessity and said that when parents lose 50% of their paycheck at week nine, bills, rent, and other childcare-related expenses do not disappear.

“This is fundamentally an economic issue,” she said. “Diapers, formula, groceries, medical expenses, all of it adds up at the very moment we tell a city employee that your paycheck is going down.”

Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago all offer 12 weeks of full paid leave, with New York City offering 67% of base pay up to a certain cap. Boston consistently ranks among these cities as being some of the most expensive places to live in, with ballooning housing, childcare, and living expenses making reduced wages critical for many families.

The number of City employees taking parental leave has also grown over the past few years. In 2021, only 181 took paid leave. By 2025, 313 employees, mostly working in fire and law enforcement, had come to rely on these benefits.

Coletta Zapata said the ordinance is an investment in the city’s workforce meant to retain talent from leaving Boston or transitioning into the private sector.

“Because the job market is the way it is, people are looking to other cities to see where they should go. I wouldn’t want to lose good, hardworking city people just because they feel trying to have a family here is impossible,” she said.

Though Boston cannot match its largest employers dollar-for-dollar, offering this benefit will make working for the city more competitive while supporting employee retention and family stability.

The Councilor said up front that this ordinance will cost money. The number of City employees taking parental leave has also grown from 181 in 2021 to 313 in 2025. The majority of these employees, she said, come from fire and police services.

Though she did not provide an estimate of the potential cost, Coletta Zapata said her ordinance is an important value statement that the City cares about its employees and their families.

“We care about your economic stability, and we care about your mental health, and we really want to support you at the end of the day if this is a decision that you make for you and your family,” she said.

The ordinance received unanimous co-sponsorship from the rest of the body and was referred to the Committee on Government Operations. A hearing to explore this amendment will be scheduled in the coming weeks.