Benefits Of Guaranteed Paid On The United States

Currently, the United States is the only industrialized country without a statute requiring all employers to provide some kind of paid time off for its employees to care for a newborn or a sick loved one. Data gathered from 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) support this claim. Figure 1 shows the member countries and the length of maternity leave provided to all employees.

As we move into the new millennium more and more employers are allowing, some are even encouraging, their employees to bring their newborn babies to work with them. This is probably one of the greatest changes in child care norms that this country has seen in the past 30 years. Once upon a time, when a woman had a baby she almost always quit her job to raise her child, depending on her husband to support her and her child. Then along came the idea of maternity leave. This is when a woman takes a certain amount of time off to be with newborn. Once this time period was up, the woman still had a job to go back to. This meant that women no longer had to rely on their husbands for support. Unfortunately it also

What is Family and Medical leave Act (FMLA)? The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that was passed in 1993, is a national policy that grants workers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave in four situations. These four situations are for pregnancy; to care for an infant, such as newborns, newly-placed foster children, and adoptions; to care for a relative with a serious health condition; or to allow an employee to recover and recuperate from a personal serious health condition. This paper will be discussing the impact of FMLA on employers and the protections provided by this law. (Vikesland, 2009)

Although current federal and state level legislation guarantee some protections, these policies do not cover all new parents. Parents must have worked a minimum of 5 months while contributing to State Disability Insurance to receive 55% of their salary during 6 weeks of their parental leave, and must have worked with an employer for 1 year to quality for 12 weeks of unpaid leave (“About Paid Family Leave (PFL),” n.d.). Parental leave is not accessible to all adults in the United States because of these requirements, and therefore makes early parenting even more challenging for working adults. Nationally, the trend for mothers on maternal leave has stagnated, although the US economy has expanded (Zagorsky, 2017).

Today there are two countries in the world that do not currently guarantee paid maternity leave for employed new mothers and/or expecting mothers, those countries are the United States and Papua New Guinea, according to the International Labour Organization, an United Nations agency, which recommends a minimum 18 week maternity leave (Rubin 2016, p.1). In recent years, the controversial issue of guaranteed maternal leave has been a prominent topic of debate amongst political activists and elites, particularly in the United States, where reform is a feasible option but has yet to be achieved. It is this absence of policy that serves to provide guaranteed maternal for all working mothers that has been linked to significant health related issues; these adverse effects not only impacts those mothers, but their children as well. Although paid maternal leave remains a controversial matter, policy reform that implements such leave is not only a feasible option in the United States, both economically and politically, it is an ethical necessity in order to facilitate the well-being of American women. Thus, in order to work toward ethical political/governmental policy that supports the well-being of women in the United States’ workforce, it is crucial that guaranteed paid maternal policy is implemented.

Pregnancy and early child development is a fundamental aspect of human society, and is pertinent to the development of a successfully functioning community. The developmental and social progress of any civilization relies on children, as they will compose the future working population. Therefore, a mother or father’s involvement in the child’s development is of extreme importance, which is why family leave has been implemented all over the world. Family leave refers to the period of time granted to the employee to care for their newborn child. As communities evolve economically, financial stability is necessary, for what is perceived to be socially successful for a child’s development, which is why paid family leave is popular throughout the world’s nations. However, ABC News reports that “the U.S. is only one of three countries in the world that don't offer paid maternity leave” (Kim, 2015); the same is true for paternity leave. The United States government has an interesting track record dealing with family leave, but in order to analyze what the US government and advocacy groups have done to solve this issue, there first needs to be an understanding on why this issue is so difficult to resolve. The arguments that support and oppose paid family leave in the United States are equally valid, therefore causing a stalemate in the attempted policy making of legislative bodies.

The government understood the difficulty of balancing work and childcare. As mentioned previously, FMLA permits mother to take medical leave for the period of time during which they are physically unable to work due to pregnancy, childbirth, recovery and related medical conditions. Additionally, both parents to take leave for the birth of a child, and for the placement of a child for adoption or foster. Thus, the leave allows the parents to bond with their child within one year of the child’s birth or placement. Nevertheless, according Gomby and Pei (2009), the two most important determinants of whether parents take leave are if the leave is paid and job-protected. Although FMLA provides job protection, it is unpaid, therefore many parents decide not to take it or may return to work earlier than they would have wanted to so they can support their

The Urban Institute published a case study that promotes the creation of national paid family leave policy in the United States. In the study, it is shown that this issue has been debated countless times in the past. George H.W. Bush even vetoed an unpaid family leave act during his presidency. This displays the struggles of enacting policy relating to this issue. The lack of a national paid family leave program in the US has left working mothers with three options: “return to work immediately after childbirth, quit employment, or take unpaid leave” (Urban Institute, 2017, p.3). The issue with these options include, loss of pay, unemployment, or the lack of parental presence in a child’s early development. Moreover, although some private companies offer paid leave, less educated and lower income mother have little access to this paid leave, which exacerbates their financial instability, keeping them in a lower societal class. This study found that not only is the current system is inadequate, but it is also inequitable, which causes financial hardships across the nation. According to the study, there has even been a 32% decrease in income after childbirth. Although this is the current situation, some states have enacted a statewide paid family leave program, which displays

The lack of a paid parental leave law in the country does not necessarily mean that it is absent in the U.S. labor market. Some generous and more progressive companies do recognize the importance of the leave to employees and do offer it. According to the Employee Benefits Survey of 2015, 21% of employers nationally offer some paid maternity leave while 17% offer some paid paternity/adoption leave. However, about a fifth don’t have any kind of protected maternity, paternity, or adoptive leave. (Ray, 8; Time, n. pag.)

Recently women’s rights and women’s equality in the workplace has come back to the fore as a topic for discussion in government agencies and the United Nations. Whilst this is a very important topic, when it comes to time off from work when a new child is born, women in the US have some provision, whereas men have none.

Every single person should be aware of its rights and benefits as a worker in a company. A benefit that commonly women get is, “Maternity leave,” or “Family leave.” This an principally significant topic, since in some companies, and corporations this right is not truly respected, and some employees don’t know how to fight for their privileges.

Although the United States is one of the most advanced nations in the world, some women do not receive the treatment they need and deserve to build the best lives for their children and their families. Other countries such as France and Australia have embraced paid maternity leave. The United States is seen as the mother of the globe. Other countries follow their example. America’s loyal children need an example to follow. Just six months can birth new opportunities for all new mothers and their growing

There is a direct relationship between the amount of leave one is granted, and breastfeeding rates. In a 2010 study it said the US could prevent 900 deaths of infants and save 13 billion dollars per year if 90% of women breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of their child’s life. As of 2010, only 43% of babies in America are breastfed for six months. Women are not able to breastfeed exclusively due to the high demands of work. Some believe that updating the Family Medical Leave Act will create debt but the findings of this study say it can actually help the economy and save lives.

Despite the advantages of paid parental leave, the United States trails behind other developed countries in guaranteeing these options. In fact, America is currently “one of the only two nations (the other being Papua New Guinea) that do not guarantee paid maternity leave to new mothers” (Baum II and Ruhm 333). Last year, according to the Pew Research Center, only fourteen percent of workers had access to paid family leave (Desilver). Instead of choosing to extend paid leave for their employees, many American businesses opt to offer unpaid family leave that is available to almost ninety

Access to paid leave is often identified as an issue that primarily concerns working mothers, yet paid leave is also critically important for working fathers. In a society that continues to evolve, it is even more imperative to address this unequal access with an increasing number of fathers who are serving as stay at home parents (International Labor Organization, 2014). Legislation that supports fathers having the support they need to prioritize family responsibilities can significantly increase the personal and economic well-being of their growing families (United States Department of Labor, 2015). Despite these advantages, the growing importance of paternal involvement with their newborns is not always supported in today’s society. The economic and social barriers fathers face may hinder them from taking paternity leave altogether, such as inadequate access to paid leave and outdated cultural norms about male breadwinners. According to survey data, most fathers in the United States only take one day of leave time for every month the typical mother takes (Harrington et al., 2014). This means that even in the twenty-first century, it appears to be more widely accepted for mothers to take off time from work to care for their families than fathers. Fewer than half the countries in the world provide men with access to paid leave to care for a new child, while virtually all provide paid maternity leave (ILO, 2014). Paid paternity leave and laws related to promote