OPM: Agencies must move on paid parental leave, other enhancements
- By FederalSoup Staff
- Feb 18, 2021
The Office of Personnel Management is nudging agencies to get moving on applying several recently mandated enhancements to pay and benefits for feds—improvements that were clarified in funding bills passed at the end of last year.
Acting OPM Director Kathleen McGettigan issued a memo, directed to “heads of executive departments and agencies,” reminding these leaders of “several legislative changes and extensions affecting Federal employee pay and certain benefits” and the need to properly implement them.
The biggest of the changes, affecting perhaps the largest number of feds, is the extension of paid leave to all feds, for the birth or adoption of a child, or for the foster placement of one, in a fed’s family.
Since the original laws passed in Congress extending this much-awaited benefit, and others, there have been technical adjustments made to correct for glitches or other instances in which employees were left out of coverage. The OPM memo provides details and additional links to ensure that departments and agencies are implementing the most recent legal changes, so that all eligible feds can use the benefits and get the support they need.
In addition to directing the implementation of paid parental leave, other parts of the memo pertain to extensions or improvements to several other specific pay and benefits programs—including the Reserve Income Savings Program applicable to some military reservists posted overseas.