The United States is the only developed country in the world with no mandated paid maternity leave in the world (Liebelson, 2014) The only other country that does not mandate any paid leave for women from their jobs is Papua New Guinea. Unpaid leave was only mandated in 1993 under the Family Medical Leave Act and allows hourly workers to take time away from their work, but with no financial support (Kirtzleben, 2015). There is no mandated paternity leave in the United States, despite the fact that fathers are becoming more involved in the care of children and families. High level politicians need to create federal policies that allow all citizens access to the paid family leave that they need and deserve.
Scope of the Problem
In the United States, only 12% of workers get paid family leave through their employers (Liebelson, 2014). Each employer is able to give however much paid time off they would like, but they are in no way required to do so. More than 2.5 million workers need to take leave but are unable to do so because of their family’s financial needs (Lerner, 2015). Most women return to work within 10 weeks of giving birth (Lerner, 2015). Nearly 1 in 4 women return to work within 2 weeks of having their child.
Access to Paid Maternity (and Paternity) Leave
80% of college graduates took 6 weeks or more off to care for their newborn child yet only 54% of women without a college degree did so. This statistic shows how women from racial minorities and lower socioeconomic backgrounds are disproportionately affected by the privatization of paid leave policies in the United States. For example, Netflix announced that all employees would be eligible for unlimited parental leave in August of this year (Peck, 2015). However, what they failed to mention, was that only salaried employees in their digital division could cash in this benefit. The hourly employees who earn a lower wage than their colleagues in the DVD department would not.
Call to Action
The best way to achieve paid maternity and family leave for all workers in America is to have it mandated by the Federal Government. Please contact the sympathetic political candidates as well as your local representatives to tell them that this issue is important for the health of the American economy. The following links will take you to candidates websites, both presidential frontrunners and sympathetic Illinois legislators, so you can educate yourself on their maternity and family leave policies and ask them to stand strong on these issues.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/womens-rights-and-opportunity/
https://berniesanders.com/issues/real-family-values/