U.S. One Step Closer to Joining Civilized World on Paid Parental Leave

Only five countries in the world offer no form of legally protected paid maternity leave to women workers: Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho, Liberia, and the United States.

Despite the fact that successful paid parental leave programs in 168 other nations worldwide have repeatedly shown that offering paid parental leave benefits child health, reduces stress on working families, and increases a society's economic productivity long-term, U.S. lawmakers have, up to now, failed to provide American parents with even basic paid family leave benefits.

And as a result, many American parents find themselves rushing back to work just weeks or even days after a childbirth or adoption because they cannot afford, or are not eligible for, or have already had to use the brief unpaid leave so grudgingly offered by FMLA (the Family and Medical Leave Act). Women who have not yet healed from childbirth go back to their desks, or their coffee shop espresso machines, or their cash registers, (and some of them try to pump breastmilk frantically on a brief lunch break in a bathroom). Parents with sick newborns leave their babies at the NICU to go back to work so that they can afford to pay the medical bills.

In my own family's case, when my son was born several years ago, my husband wound up picking up a third job, sacrificing his own time with our child to make up for my lost income so that I could be home with our baby in his first few months of life. But many American families do not even have that option.

Last week, the U.S. House finally passed a bill, sponsored by New York Congresswoman (and friend of this blog) Carolyn Maloney, that would grant four weeks of paid parental leave to all Federal government employees after the birth or adoption of a child. Though the bill only applies to government workers, and would not affect private sector employees, for the United States, considering our record thus far on parental leave, it would be a big step forward.

The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act will now move to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. But strong opposition from Senate Republicans could delay or weaken the bill. If you care about improving working parents' access to reasonable parental leave, please contact your Senators and let them know that you would prefer the United States have just this one less thing in common with Liberia and Swaziland. 

Photo credit: Doreen Dotto.

Comments

[Mr Lady]

We have a year in Canada. A YEAR.

My husband went to work the very same day our first son was born. It's cruel and it's wrong, it really is.