Paid Parental Care: A Case Study

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.

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.

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

In the spirit of debate I speak to the following representatives/senators of the concept bill C addresses. Should parents be forced to suffer financially and mentally because they gave birth to a baby? They should not and I am in affirmation of this bill because it protects families from financial stress and has health benefits to the mothers and their children.

Is America falling behind the rest of the world in terms of the services it provides? As a proud citizen of this great nation I, unfortunately, have to say “yes.” Our once outstanding country has been falling behind in a number of areas including technology, education, economics, and yes, even in family care! America is now one of only three industrialized countries that hasn’t set up a nationwide policy for paid parental leave. With this knowledge I desired to know more, particularly if we as a nation are not doing much to rectify the situation. Then, to learn if any states were doing something about this issue which effects so many people in the workforce. I wanted to see exactly how far behind, compared to the rest world, we are in the issue of paid parental leave. The Pew Research Center conducted a study of government supported leave in 38 OECD countries, and found that the US had the lowest figures with zero weeks of paid leave. Though we did fare better when it came to the number of weeks provided for protected leave with 12 weeks. We were still far worse than most other OECD countries (see Figure 1 at right). Knowing that we were rated worse I wanted to know what people are saying that we can and should be doing to change this situation?

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.

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 (Rubin 2016). 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 both an ethical protection for employees and a feasible option for employers, but has yet to be achieved. It is this absence of policy that has been linked to significant health related issues of which does not only effect mothers, but their children as well. In addition to these adverse health impacts, it generates economic hardships to mothers and families. Thus, the consequences to mothers, families, and newborns that the absence of guaranteed paid maternal leave presents and the potential benefits of guaranteed paid leave for these individuals as well as employers, creates a case for policy reform in this particular area that would implement such protection.

Although women are not forced to stick to being a good wife like they were in the 1950s, sharing child care duties is easier said than done. While extended paid leave for new parents is an emerging

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.)

The business must also make sure that they have clear guidelines in the terms of the maternity and paternity pay leave as the business must make sure that the employees gets this. Also it would be the employees right to have maternity and paternity pay leave so they must provide this. The business must allow the female employees to have 26 weeks ordinary leave and another 26 weeks leave if required. Also the business must allow the employee to work for the business after the maternity leave. The business must give the male employees two weeks paid of paternity leave. The business must not refuse to give the employees of the business maternity and paternity paid leave as the employees would have the right to.

Business generates from investments. At Patagonia, all of the employees work after a standard parental leave. They face lots of risks but there is a need of change. They possess the skills to deal with the private life. The child care plan introduced by Patagonia helped to

A new born baby should always be welcomed with open arms excitement, not with fear. On this paper, I want to talk why having a paid parental leave in the united states is something that we need. This topic is of high interest to me because they are only a few countries around the world who don’t offer paid parental leave and the united states is one of them. As a person who wants to start a family in a future, not having paid parental leave can affect me in many ways. For instance, without paid parental leave and with the current parental leave policy, were parents only get 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave; will have to go back to work to make sure that we are not be set back financially. Leaving my 12-week infant at a day care, without a

The name and fame of a company depends on the working staff and the company management. However maintaining a happy and a secure family depends upon the parents. It is not easy to maintain the work and family life for a working parent. So companies can help the employees by providing benefits to balance their work-life structure. Employees should have control over their work-life priorities, which results in fulfilled employees with high performance teams and better job satisfaction. In the past, companies used to have maternity leaves but not paternity leaves because mothers used to take care of the children more at home and fathers used to work more to fulfill the family needs. But in modern times both mother and father have equal responsibility in taking care of their children and financial matters. So the company has to provide paternity leaves along with maternity leaves. The State Street Corporation provides the best benefits and policies to working fathers to balance their work-family structure like family support, paid leaves and flexible work schedules.

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

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