Benefits Of Paid Maternity Leave Essay

Parents who lose wages while they take time off are protected by the Paid Family Leave Act (PFL), as California provides income replacement in order for them to bond with their newborn or newly adopted child. PFL offers six weeks of partial pay in order to care for the child, financially. According to website, paidfamilyleave.org the partial pay is 55 percent of the worker’s usual salary. PFL does not guarantee job protection as the parent has to qualify for the California Family Rights Act. In the article 10 Things You Need to Know About Maternity Leave in the US, it states, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 12 percent of Americans have access to the paid parental leave, which is considered a benefit by employers,” demonstrating that only certain employees receive paid parental leave as

America being one the most industrialized nations it is shocking to most to discover that it does not provide a more beneficial maternity leave when compared to its European counterparts. Not only is Europe leading the way for a lengthier leave of absence for new mothers, they also provide financial benefits to those families with newborns, to American society this is not considered a cultural norm, in fact it is even bizarre to some that having a child while in the work force would even be beneficial. Consequently, the difficulty in accessing a reasonable maternity leave in America creates long term effects on a child’s development.

Only 9% percent of American companies offer paid paternity leave for all their employees (Ramnarace,). Since Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are underpaid, it is very hard for fathers to be able to take a long absence from work and not be paid for the time off. 86 percent of men said they would not take a paid leave unless they made at least 70 percent of their current salary (Ramnarace,). There are 79 countries that have laws that require companies to offer paternity leave for fathers. There are 29 countries in Africa, 7 in Asia, 5 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 12 in Lain America, 2 in the Middle East, and 24 in the Developed Economies (Ramnarace,). The United States is still behind by only having 4 states that have adopted the new laws allowing fathers a leave of absence from work with some sort of pay. While the current family leave law allows for 12 work weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period, I believe the law should be expanded worldwide to allow paid leave for all fathers without using their accumulated paid leave credits (Parental).

Take a moment to think about this: you and your significant other just took the step to become parents. Though you are young, you both believed it was time and went ahead and brought a baby into your lives. Staring at your baby and your spouse with loving eyes, you do not think life can get any better. However blissful life may seem, things soon come crashing down. You and your significant other work average wage jobs and are having a hard-enough time supporting each other, and now the cost of diapers, clothes, furniture, formula and baby food are creeping in on you and sucking the life out of your bank account. You want to spend time with your new bundle of joy, but suddenly, your baby is being ripped out of your hands and being sent to an

Maternity leave is a retreat that all mothers should have the opportunity to experience after childbirth. The birth of a child can be exciting, exhausting, and challenging for all new mothers experiencing the joys of parenthood. Unfortunately for some working mothers living in the United States, maternity leave is not always guaranteed. The United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave. An idea so common in other countries is considered a luxury benefit for hard-working mothers in the United States.

Before 1993, there was no family and medical leave legislation in the United States. It was the only major industrialized country without one; and at that time, employers had the legal right to fire employees who needed to take time off to look after seriously ill family members. They could even legally fire women that required time off for pregnancy and childbirth if they were also denying time off for employees who were not pregnant when they were unable to work (Albiston, p. vii).

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.

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.)

There is a correlation between postpartum and physiological and psychological health issues (Chatterji, 2004). Studies also found that inadequate time away from work after giving birth spurs postpartum therefore, paid maternity leave needs to be addressed to alleviate these results since recent mothers with limited financial resources tend to return to work sooner than they should. Also, it is difficult for working mothers to juggle a demanding work environment while caring for an infant at home. The stress of trying to balance the two has shown to weaken the immune system which causes other health problems down the road. According to Chatterji, returning to work too early also comes with consequences including numerous psychological conditions but most particularly depression. Chatterji also states that these negative symptoms can be reduced incrementally by increasing the time of maternity leave.

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.

In the case study, it demonstrates how the United States is the only industrialized country without a law assuring paid maternity leave to new mothers, in comparison to other countries such as

The United States is a highly developed country, and “the only country among 41 nations that does not mandate any paid leave for new parents, per data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The smallest amount of paid leave required in any of the other 40 nations is about two months” (Livingston, Among 41 Nations). A suggestion of why

Further support comes from a prospective cohort study conducted by Dagher et al. (2016) which specifically examined the impact of paid maternity leave on the length of breastfeeding. The study population included 817 Minnesota women who gave birth in 2001. The data did not find an association between paid maternity leave and the length of breastfeeding duration, whereas the length of EOML increased the breastfeeding duration. The authors conducted a sub-study to compare employee's self-report information with their employer's written family and medical leave policy. This sub-study included a random subsample of employees (n=118) and their employers (n=90). Results showed that only 29% to 35% of women were aware of their leave benefits and eligibility.

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