Staff members across the UNC System who are set to become new parents in 2020 will have an added benefit, after a vote by the system’s Board of Governors to approve paid parental leave.

The new system policy is modeled on an executive order issued by Governor Roy Cooper earlier this year extending leave to new parents who are state employees in the offices controlled by his administration.

Interim UNC System president Bill Roper said after Friday’s vote he was particularly excited about being able to offer this to employees moving forward.

“We think that’s something that’s good for our workforce, good for the university, good for the people we serve,” Roper said.

Board chair Harry Smith said there are still logistics to finalize, but that the board was supportive of the measure.

“We always have the battles of budgets and expenses and revenues,” Smith said. “But at the end of the day, I’m very proud of the fact that we were able to work alongside the president and do something that’s just truly the right thing to do for the employees of the UNC System.”

The proposal unanimously passed the full board vote on Friday after receiving strong support from the board’s personnel and tenure committee earlier in the week.

The plan will offer eight weeks of paid leave to new birth mothers and four weeks of paid leave to all other new parents.

The system estimated this implementation will cost around $4.26 million.

Roper said this was the next step in keeping a strong workforce as many private businesses and other state governments have implemented paid parental leave in recent years.

“We need a robust, engaged workforce,” Roper said, “many of which are women or men who have family needs, and we need to make sure they are able to take care of those family needs in the course of their work-life. It’s a realization that much of corporate America has long realized; it’s time that the university system joined into that movement.”

The resolution passed by the system’s Board of Governors calls for implementation of the new benefit no sooner than January 1, 2020, and no later than March 31, 2020.