A lack of mandated paid parental leave in the United States has not only placed the U.S. behind many other countries in policy, but also in health and work benefits.
Introduction
Only 4 percent of 186 countries studied do not provide some form of pay to women on maternity leave. Within this 4 percent, there is only one industrious, high-income country: the United States (Heymann and McNeill, 2013). While the U.S. has made strides in this area by providing women with protection against pregnancy discrimination as well as the right to take unpaid parental leave, this country is still far behind many others in more fully providing support to families with newborns. This issue, however, goes far beyond a simple matter of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses. A lack of paid parental leave can have significant effects not only on a family’s budget, but also the family’s health.
Scope of the Problem in the U.S.
The current condition of access to paid leave in the United States is very limited. Employers in the U.S. have reported that only 11 percent of workers are able to formally take paid family leave. Some workers, however, report being able to informally receive paid family leave through either arrangements with managers or saving up other paid leave days, like vacation days (The Council of Economic Advisers, 2014). While this shows that there are some means by which workers can try to get the time of that they need, many workers are still left without access to this support.
Benefits of Paid Parental Leave
There are multiple benefits that make paid parental leave a crucial addition to workers’ benefits. For starters, paid parental leave has been shown to have positive effects on infant health. The use of paid leave decreased the infant mortality rate by 2.5 percent (Tanaka, 2005). It also increases the likelihood that mothers will breastfeed, which greatly benefits infants’ health (Waldfogel, 2015). It has even been found that paid maternal leave can have long-term effects for children such as educational attainment, lower teen pregnancy rates, higher IQ test scores and higher earning in adulthood (The Council of Economic Advisers, 2014).
Effects of Paid Parental Leave on Employers
While employers might worry that offering paid parental leave will lead to more negatives than benefits, research has proven otherwise. From studying California’s implementation of paid family leave, it has been found that after having leave, mothers of 1 to 3 year old children have increased weekly hours and pay by almost 10 percent. This shows that after a paid maternity leave, mothers have an increased likelihood of not only returning to their workplace, but also advancing in their careers. Not only is this a benefit to the employee, but also the employer. Research has found that offering paid parental leave to employees benefits employers because it helps increase their ability to recruit and retain employees. Having a higher retention rate can lead to boosting morale and spending less money on worker turnover. In fact, out of a survey of 253 employers in California using the paid family leave initiative, over 90 percent reported either no noticeable difference or a positive effect on morale, turnover, and profitability (The Council of Economic Advisers, 2014). Therefore, paid parental leave isn’t shown to have caused negative effects on employers.
Conclusion
As the only industrialized country that does not have mandated paid parental leave, the U.S. leaves many of its parents without the possibility of being able to stay home with their newborn for much time due to financial strain. By consulting data gathered from countries that have implemented paid parental leave, the benefits of doing so are clear. The paid leave has been show to increase the baby’s health in not only the short term, but also the long term. It also has been shown to benefit mothers in their careers by improving their likelihood to increase both work hours and pay later on. Data from the majority of employers who have implemented paid parental leave have reported either no noticeable difference to positive effects in their business. Therefore, this is a policy that not only helps employees and their families, but is also good for employers.
Call to Action
The Obama administration has taken note of the growing difficulty for American families to balance both work and family in their lives. There is thus a growing need for more support in the workplace to allow employees to have some flexibility to negotiate this balance. The Obama administration has outlined some steps in moving toward this goal in their paper entitled “Obama Administration Initiatives to Help Americans Meet Work and Family Responsibilities.” This initiative suggests to:
- Help states create start-up funds for launching paid leave programs,
- Grow the knowledge base for paid leave programs through more data collection, and
- Implement paid parental leave for federal employees to show the government’s commitment to allowing employees to build strong families.
Following these initiatives will help increase the availability of paid parental leave to employees in the United States.