New York, NY – January 7, 2016 – Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign an executive order granting 20,000 city employees expanded parental leave. The policy will provide six weeks of paid time off for maternity, paternity, adoption and foster care leave, at 100 percent of salary – or up to 12 weeks when combined with other existing leave. NOW-NYC leaders and members will join the Mayor at today’s event.

NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio said,
“It has been one of NOW-NYC’s top priority agenda items for this administration to ensure that the City of New York is setting the standard for workplace equity for women and families. Today’s commitment by the Mayor to making fully paid family leave a reality puts the bar where it needs to be.”
The Mayor will also announce a slate of new appointments to its Commission on Gender Equity, including NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio. The commission was created in June of 2015 in order to achieve economic mobility and social inclusion of all New Yorkers, particularly women and girls.

In accepting the appointment, Sonia Ossorio said,
“I am honored to serve on a commission specifically dedicated to the work I have been committed to doing for the past decade – advancing the women and girls of our great city. Whether it is ensuring equitable access to reproductive health services or ending gender-based violence and the systemic discrimination of women and girls in our schools, workplaces, and institutions, it’s clear that we cannot address inequality without making the rights of women and girls a top priority.”

The National Organization for Women is the nation’s largest organization working to advance women’s rights and improve women’s lives. The New York City Chapter of NOW, founded in 1966, is the largest chapter in the country with thousands of members across the city and state. NOW-NYC advocates for the women and girls of New York City, by working to promote women’s reproductive rights, secure women’s economic empowerment, and end violence and discrimination against women.
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