Some companies are approving parental leave, even for dads. Besides the mother, the father needs to take time off and take care of his wife and newborn. The father should not be required to go to work if he has to stay up all night with his child. Moreover, he should be eligible to receive parental leave benefits.
Currently, there are some companies that have started giving parental leave for dads. Before this practice, the parent who commonly received paid leave was the pregnant mother and she had to work 40 hours a week for more than a year. It is important for everyone to get assistance when they need it, especially a mother who has given birth. Sometimes a father will be fired from his job because his company does not offer any parental leave. A mother who is working less than 30 hours is now able to get parental leave with full benefits. In addition to mothers and fathers, foster parents and parents who adopt are also receiving the benefits of parental leave.
…show more content…
To be eligible for these benefits, the mothers must have worked at least 20 hours a week for more than two years at the company. The mothers can get six weeks of paid leave and 12 weeks of unpaid leave, which is a federal regulation. However, other parents can only receive up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave. Parents other than the birth mother, such as the father, still cannot receive full benefits. The only benefit the father can receive is that he can leave his job to take care of his new baby without the risk of being fired. However, fathers’ job titles are not always secure. For that reason, some men are not willing to risk their job position, and thus they do not like to take parental
Research from Israel shows that when more time is given off to new fathers, the more their brain changes to better suit them to be a parent (Thompson). Being around the new child and caring for them allows the father to share responsibilities that a baby brings along. Having time to dedicate solely to the child gives the father the ability to bond with their baby. A study by two Columbia University professors discovered that fathers who are given time off (two or more weeks) are more involved with their child’s lives in nine months, proving that better parental relationships come from paid paternity leave (“Columbia News”). Paternity leave also creates a foundation of trust between father and child, and relieves the pressure put on mothers. When fathers are around immediately after the baby is born, mothers are not forced to do all the work around the house while caring for a newborn. The two-week (or more) time frame when fathers are around would allow for a period where both parents can get settled and adapt to taking care of the child. In Sweden, to qualify for government benefits, the father is required to take off two months from work before the child becomes eight years old. More research has proven that for every month that fathers took leave to take care of their child, the income of mothers increased about 7% (Johansson, Elly-Ann). Thus, paternity leave not only benefits the newborn child, but also mothers. This paid leave can give new parents the ability to get to know their child and adapt to the new responsibilities. There are a multitude of countries that provide paid paternity leave, and the United States is one of nine counties who does not have this option. There is no reason that fathers should not have an allotted time to spend at home with their child and spouse, and so this country should mandate the option of giving paid paternity
Here are a few things” by Alia E. Dastagir from USA Today, the author states how women still have to fight just to get proper time off after having a baby. She writes: “Paid family leave and childcare: Behind other countries. The United States is an outlier among developed countries when it comes to paid family and medical leave, which allows people time off to care for a newborn, help a sick family member or recover from a serious illness. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but according to the National Partnership for Women & Families fewer than 40% of workers qualify for it. Some employers offer paid family leave, but the group says it covers only 14% workers.
The Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted by Congress on February 5, 1993, and it is public law 103-3. This law allows for a person to leave work in certain situations without losing his/her job. An eligible employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least completed 1250 hours of service. An employee is able to leave work for up to 12 weeks for any of the following reasons: the employee expects a baby in his/her immediate family, the employee expects an adopted child in his/her immediate family, the employee has to take care of an ill family member which includes spouse, parent or his/her own children, and/or the employee has a serious medical
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.
Becoming a parent is beautiful yet stressful time in many people's lives. Emotions of joy and worry fill the mind of expecting parents as they work to provide a loving and financially stable home for their family. Both parents wish to actively support their child and their spouse during this time of transition, however, corporations are making this task difficult. Maternity leave is a benefit that most companies provide, but only for their female employees. Male employees are not given the same opportunity to share the responsibility of childcare with their wife or to develop a bond early on with their child. Providing fathers maternity leave would give them time to dedicate themselves to the growth of their child, allow the mother to heal from giving birth, and promote equality within the family unit and in the workplace.
The birth of a baby is a very important time in the lives two of parents. During this time all parents should be allowed special bonding time with their babies. Nearly 20 years after the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), it is time to take stock of U.S. policy on parental leave, particularly as it affects infant care and child development (Time off with Baby). The problem with this Leave is that it is unpaid and sometimes parents can’t afford to not work and take care of their family.
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).
Our society is changing each and every day, new technology advancements, new medical practices, and new industrial technology advancements, just to name a few. With this being said, shouldn’t the benefits be changing along with this? You have medical leave, maternity leave and in rare occasions, paternity leave. Why shouldn’t parents be able to take off time together to bond with their newborns or new family members in such a case as adoption? So I took some time to study about parental leave, this is when I came across some very interesting information. When looking at the statistics, the benefits really out weigh the disadvantages. Parental leave policies with a required minimum of twelve weeks paid leave to use at the parents will within the first four years of the child 's life should be offered in United States, like in Sweden, because children and parents will both benefit from this.
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 no distinction made for mother or father, as both are deemed as important, therefore they can carve up the 16 months as needed. If the U.S. was concerned about the cost of paid parental leave, it only has to look to it’s neighbors to the north for some ideas. In the state of Québec in Canada, the government has a plan called the QPIP, or Québec Parental Insurance Plan (2). QPIP is specifically designed for the father as the mother is provided for by other means. It is, as the name states, effectively an insurance plan that gets paid into by the father, if eligible, to help provide for paid leave at the time of birth. One distinction made clear in this model though, is that the benefits are for the biological father, which could be different from the male adult who will be bringing up the child.
Paternity leave should be a right for all male workers for two weeks. Paternity leave is a period of absence from work granted to a father after or shortly before the birth of his child. Usually, pregnant women who are nearly due for delivery are able to take parental leave from their employment, what about men? Shouldn’t they have the ability to go on leave for the birth of their children? Paternity leave should be granted for male workers for many reasons. This essay will consider some of those reasons, such as if the partner is not well after the birth of the child, needs care and supervision or if she is going through tough pregnancy and needs her male partner to assist her delivering their child. It is also important for an infant-father bonding as much as an infant-mother bonding after the child is born. Also if a horrible circumstance occurs like mother passing away during her delivery, that would leave the father as the first and only carer.
Paid family leave is highly supported amongst many employed parents in the United States, and is
Women give birth nearly every day around the world, yet some fathers are hardly present to lend them support. Some fathers may not be desirous of the opportunity while others can’t find time to be there long enough. Also, some fathers can’t afford to sacrifice their pay check, which their families need to maintain the new addition. Paternity leave is time off from work granted to male employees, in the private and public sectors, to be with their spouses and newborns. Most employers rarely pay male employees paternity leave to spend time with their spouses when they deliver a child, suffer a miscarriage, or adopt a child. Men wishing to take paternity leave to assist their spouse under these conditions usually do so through paid leave such
Companies should offer paternity leave for expectant fathers. By offering paternity leave for fathers-to-be companies allow fathers to be a benefit of paid or unpaid time off work to care for their child, make arrangements for the child’s welfare, and preparation for the adoption of a child. Generally, offering paternity leave for fathers allows them to benefit the birth of a child. Companies that provide the option of paternity leave grant these fathers the privilege of being present for labor, delivery, and any other emergency procedures that may be necessary. Paternity leave provides the father with an advantage to be able to care for their
The article, “Without Taking Away Her Leave”: A Canadian Case Study of Couples Decisions on Father’s Use of Parental Leave” explains, “More than one in four Canadian fathers now takes some paid leave at the birth of a child.” While this certain explanation is shown in a positive perspective, more fathers in the workplace should be taking hefty advantage of paid parental leave particularly to form the bond in the first six weeks. While in countries like Canada in the province of Quebec, paternity leave is more accepted by men than it is in countries like the United States. In the United States it is more likely for a father not to take any time off after his child is born. One might argue that taking too much time off after the birth of a child might take away opportunities in the workplace, but because paternity leave is becoming more accepted, it will be normal for a man to take time off. It is likely that they will have to use vacation time which might leave room for not being able to call off for an emergency. In most cases, taking twelve weeks unpaid could really hurt a family. That is why those first six weeks should be paid for. The idea