The Legal Basis For Maternity

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

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.

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.

The concept of the FMLA was set in motion through debates over a California law mandating maternity leave for childbirth, which is discussed in greater detail in the “Government” section of this paper. After a federal district court struck down the law in 1984 as sex discrimination against men, Congressman Howard Berman, a Democrat from California, sought help from the National Partnership for Women & Families, then the Women's Legal Defense Fund, in framing a bill that would require employers to grant maternity leave (115). Instead, the National Partnership submitted the idea of a broader leave that would not only meet the needs of new mothers, but address a wider range of work/family conflicts affecting both women and men (116).

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.

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.

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.

A mere 12 weeks is the amount of unpaid maternity leave promised to working mothers under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in America. Although many mothers-to-be gladly take the dozen weeks off, American families are at a disadvantage compared to other families around the globe. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not guarantee or even offer paid maternity leave for working mothers; employers decide whether to provide paid leave for mothers. In the last few decades, more women have traded their aprons for briefcases. However, working women in the United States must choose to raise families while keeping their jobs. Currently, women in the United States must choose between their kids or their career. Mothers who decide to have families must stay at home with a new baby with no guarantee of a paycheck. New mothers should be guaranteed six months of fully paid maternity leave in the United States because they need to restore their health, paid leave helps the economy, and it promotes better health of the baby.

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