Parental Leave Policy Analysis

The website, whitehouse.gov it states that, “Only 39 percent report being able to take some type of paid family leave for the birth of a child.” Not all the workers were offered paid leave or any of the benefits it provides. Workers should be allowed to take time off to care for their child as they require extensive attention and care. The parents should be granted family rights along with individual rights.  The website also mentions how not only businesses but families will benefit as their economy overall would benefit since making full use of American talent requires policies that let workers better balance their family lives. Aside from work benefits parents will save money on baby essentials such as clothing, diapers, and formula as the expenses will be covered by their employer. Babies are healthier when their parents can afford them and cover all of their baby’s expenses. Along with raising a healthy child, maternal leave also impacts the mother’s health as they get to bond with their child without worrying about any job-related

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).

It is key to acknowledge the advancements the current paid parental leave policy has for woman’s equality in the workplace. The Australian government pursued these policy changes to move towards gender equity through provisions for work/life balance while also working towards increased workplace participation and maintainable economic growth (Australian Government, 2009). In comparison internationally the Australian Scheme falls significantly short towards breaking ground on the promotion of gender equality, which can be linked to several key areas where Australian policy development is lacking. Researchers agree that several developments need to occur for movement towards gender equality within the area of paid parental leave policy to successfully develop policies, which encourage and support fathers in the caregiving roll. Two key factors include the introduction of non-transferable leave for fathers and the increase of paid parental leave payments to reduce the financial burden on families (Broomhill & Sharp,

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

As more women in the United States join the workforce, policy needs to reflect and benefit these working mothers. This creates a balancing act between gender equality, a popular issue amongst political candidates, and paid maternity leave. America cannot expect to have one without the other.

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).

(video go -We are the only industrialized nation that doesn't guarantee workers paid family leave." in a speech at the Democratic convention – Monday, July 25,

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.)

Paid parental leave should be equal and for both parents once a child is born

The United States and the United States Army had made several revisions to the paternity/ maternity leave policies. Even with current changes we are not where we need to be. The United States Army currently offers 10 days of paternity leave to Soldiers that are married¹ and 12 weeks of maternity leave for female Soldiers.² The Army should convert these two policies into one policy titled parental leave. Some of the benefits of implementing the parental leave policy are mother’s physical and mental readiness, increased performance, and equality.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump promised six weeks of paid leave for new mothers. He also wanted to extend the benefit to new fathers and adoptive parents as well. According to a budget document, the White House anticipates the program would cost roughly $18.5 billion over the course of 10 years. The

This country doesn’t help its citizens as much as it thinks it does when it comes to family leave. A fact from the Los Angeles Times(2014) states that, “The federal government deems workers eligible for unpaid parental leave only if they have been with their employer for at least 12 months, if their employer has at least 50 employees, and if they worked at least 1,250 hours during that year long period.” Due to these conditions not everyone that is on the workforce can be eligible for even unpaid leave, and this law it is unfair for the majority of small businesses and local businesses to grant their workers any time off for family leave. This leaves the parents in a predicament, with either having to only get unpaid time off for a short time or even having to quit their job and not being able to financially support their new family, or they can stay at their job and work and have the money for their new family and not have the precious bonding time with their children and may even lead to family issues in the

According to the National Partnership, 76% of respondents of a survey favored updating the Family Medical Leave Act. Also, 84% of people under 30 favored updating the act, and 72% of people over 65 favor the updating of the act. Some believe that paid leave will be extremely bad timing, will be difficult to fund, and that the government should focus on the fiscal cliff instead. However, in the long run having paid maternity leave will result in saving money.

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

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