San Francisco becomes 1st city in US to offer fully paid parental leave

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco supervisors approved legislation that would make the city the first in the country to guarantee six fully paid weeks of parental leave.

San Francisco is now the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to offer 100 percent paid parental leave.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted on a proposal to allow both parents to take six weeks of parental leave at 100 percent of their salary; 55 percent covered by the state and 45 percent covered by companies with 20 or more employees.

San Francisco's small business commission opposed the measure. The chamber of commerce was neutral.

The measure would go into effect in 2017.

In related news, San Francisco-based Twitter announced it would offer equal time off to both mothers and fathers, welcoming new babies.

This made Twitter the latest tech firm to provide gender neutral parental leave. That leave includes 20 weeks off work, with full pay. Mothers were already granted that and the gender neutral rule would take effect at the end of April.

Twitter's rules cover adoptions as well.