Obama's paid-leave policies make progress in cities

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

In his State of the Union Address in January, President Obama said he would go around Congress if necessary and push states to adopt paid-leave laws.

Eight months later, only one state — Oregon — has passed such a law. But 17 cities have.

Pittsburgh became the latest major city to do so this month, and the White House is using the occasion to trumpet Obama's strategy of "taking action on the ground."

According to a White House report released Tuesday, 17 states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wage since Obama first called for an increase in 2013. Another 31 cities, states, and American Indian tribes have signed on to the TechHire initiative and 50 communities are involved in Obama's My Brother's Keeper youth mentorship program.

"It is a change in the paradigm, where we used to sit passively by waiting for elected officials to come to us," Valerie Jarrett, the assistant to the president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, told USA TODAY in May. "I think the president has always had the perspective that change always happens from the ground up, and our state and local officials are oftentimes more influenced by the will of the American people than the politics in Washington would seem to indicate."

Obama has proposed laws granting paid time off for American workers who get sick or who are caring for a newly born or adopted child, and has taken executive action to give those benefits to federal workers by advancing unearned sick time.

In a post on the White House blog Tuesday, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto called the paid leave law "a great example of Pittsburgh taking the lead while Congress sits on its hands." And he said he's "happy to be an active partner with the White House" on other initiatives, including technology hiring, inner-city youth mentorship, police-community relations, veteran homelessness, manufacturing, clean energy and immigration.

But the state-and-local strategy can be legally perilous. Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled legislature is considering a bill to limit the ability of cities to pass paid leave laws, and Pittsburgh's law may violate its home rule powers.