All I want is a job that fits my personal schedule, and where I have numerous opportunities not to show up. So I’ve decided to load up my truck and move my family to San Francisco.

On October 9, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee signed the “Family-Friendly Workplace Ordinance,“ scheduled to take effect January 1, 2014. The ordinance grants employees the right to request changes in work schedule, work location, work assignment, and number of work hours, in order to allow them to care for a child, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, grandchild, or a parent 65 years of age or older. This is the first law of its kind in the United States and I suspect that some cities such as Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle may follow suit within the next year or two, as those cities have historically been in the forefront of creating such ordinances. But San Francisco is still the leader in family-friendly policies – it’s the city that brought us legally sanctioned lactation leave, after all.

The language of the ordinance is somewhat unclear as to what employees would be covered. The safest thing is to assume that it would cover anyone regularly working inside the San Francisco city limits. The eligibility bar set by the ordinance is set very low: an employee with six or more months of service and who works a minimum of eight hours per week is eligible to request accommodation...

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