Memphis City Council members took the first step towards offering paid family maternity leave to all city employees on Tuesday, May 26.
A resolution offering six months of paid leave moved forward with a favorable recommendation during the Personnel Committee meeting. The resolution replaces an ordinance that would have codified the benefit in the city charter.
The item will be taken up at the next council meeting on June 9.
If it passes on a third and final vote, the city employees would join the growing ranks of government employees of all levels in Tennessee that are eligible for the benefit. Cities in the state that currently offer PFL include Nashville and Knoxville.
All full-time employees would be eligible for 100% of 240 hours of paid leave. In addition to births, qualifying events include adoptions and foster placement.
“Just as the county government now has it, the state government has it — we’ll get this through — the city government will have it,” said co-sponsor Council Member Jerri Green.
Memphis’s city employees currently rely on paid time off to lend a post-maternity hand around the house.
“I think this is a really incredible policy. I think it’s going to be something really wonderful for our employees,” said Green. “I hope that private organizations around our city take our example and do the same, because it is so important for parents and for children.”
Before the resolution was read into the record, another co-sponsor withdrew an ordinance that offered the same benefit. It was written on the advice of the city’s chief legal officer, Tannera Gibson. A resolution from the mayor would be more “efficient” and “binding.”
“We want to make sure, Councilwoman Green and I, that it’s real on paper and in policy. And that it has a less likelihood of being argued when we’re gone,” said co-sponsor Michalyn Easter-Thomas.
The answer satisfied any doubts from fellow committee members.
“What would be so rewarding is that we would take all of our attorney’s advice when things come up and we have a question. Then we could all go through it. That would be really nice, councilmembers,” said Yolanda Cooper-Sutton.
The comment was likely a dig at Councilman JB Smiley. During the executive session later in the day, the runner-up in the 2026 Shelby County Mayor Democratic primary scuttled a recently approved ordinance amendment that overhauled the city’s employee impasse procedure.
At the time of its authorship, Smiley ignored the advice of council attorney Alan Wade, who said the amendment would violate the city’s charter.
The tweak pared the procedure down from a five-person arbitration panel to a single mediator. The intent was to let the city and workers settle their own differences as much as possible, without council input.
A new amendment that expands the panel to six members was offered on Tuesday.
