Cedar City employees could get a paid week of parental leave under draft policy
Draft adds 40 hours for a new child, plus 40 postpartum hours for the birthing parent; council vote is at the next action meeting.
CEDAR CITY - City employees who give birth, adopt or take in a foster child could get 40 hours of paid parental leave, plus 40 more postpartum hours for the birthing parent, under a personnel-policy change the City Council moved to its next action meeting on Nov. 4, according to the agenda packet and meeting recording.
What it means for you: The hours would come on top of sick, vacation or compensatory time already earned, says a staff memo from Natasha Hirschi. Today the city makes employees use up paid leave before unpaid federal family leave, which protects a job for up to 12 weeks. With adoption or foster placement, a council member noted, the benefit would be the 40 hours.
The memo offers options: add postpartum time, raise both benefits to match other employers, or adopt the draft as written. A speaker cited six weeks at Southern Utah University and three weeks plus three postpartum weeks at Iron County School District.
Council members were asked to send staff direction by the end of the following week so changes could be published. The motion passed on a voice vote with no opposition heard.
Source: Cedar City Council work meeting agenda and packet, Nov. 4, 2026; Cedar City Council meeting recording, Nov. 4, 2026.