Nurses who watched new parents rush back to work just won America's first county-wide paid parental leave law

Jean Stone works in a neonatal intensive care unit in Pittsburgh, where she watched parents forced back to work while their newborns were still in hospital care. Five months ago she and fellow nurses at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, together with parents and advocates, drafted a proposal for Allegheny County — and on October 20 the County Council passed it 11 to 4: 12 weeks of paid parental leave, the first county-level policy of its kind in the USA. County Executive Sara Innamorato signed it into law on October 22. It covers employers with 15 or more workers and will be phased in over the next year.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: policy reform