Parental leave, when will we have a decent one?
Throughout the world, especially in developed countries, policies for parental leave exist to provide parents with better care and the possibility to bond with their newborns. Unfortunately, The U.S. is not one of them.
Nowadays as most of the families have both parents in the workforce, we require lawmakers to deliver updated laws to provide better opportunities for both or either parent to take better care of their newborn or adopted child while they provide the emotional support needed.
The U.S. in comparison with other countries, to my belief, is falling behind in giving better opportunities and granting appropriate maternity leave for mothers in the workforce. UNICEF’s 2019 study evaluating which countries are the most family-friendly amongst the richest countries in the world, notes that Estonia dominates the field for new mothers who receive more than Eighty weeks’ full-pay leave. The United States was astonishingly ranked lowest in the table and marked the only nation in the research that did not give any national leave paid (Jou, Kozhimannil, Abraham, Blewett, & McGovern, 2018). Also as per the data collected from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in April 2018, the U.S. is the single state amongst forty-one countries that do not grant paid leaves to new parents.
Moreover, let not neglect that maternity leave promotes family values and minimizes discrimination according to the Family and Medical Leave Act which was passed in the year 1993 and the National Partnership for Families and Women previously which was called the Legal Defense Fund for women. It is aimed at promoting stability and economy as it maintains the quality of family, to bind employees to take leave to look after their newly born and other members of the family.
Other positive impacts are that as we advance into striving for equality, parental leave provides opportunities for both males and females while mitigating the chance of sexual discrimination especially when it comes to the consideration of hiring women in reproductive age.
Research has shown that family leaves that are paid have a strong impression on the child and maternal wellbeing, improving child mortality rates, and reduced mothers’ stress and depression. Paid family holidays will also foster gender equality if both parents’ time with children is taken into consideration (Salganicoff, 2018).
However, although the United States is the solitary state that has no national paid leave policy, the state-mandated paid leave programs are enforced in New Jersey, California, New York, the District of Columbia, and Rhode Island. Moreover, Washington DC introduced a program related to paid leaves approved by the legislature in 2017 that would become effective in early 2020.
On the federal level, a bill has been introduced in the US House of Representatives that would offer twelve weeks of paid leave for an adopted or a newborn child to federal employees, both males, and females. The Senate will do voting on the described bill and the proposal will be endorsed by President Donald Trump (“Among 41 countries, only U.S. lacks paid parental leave”, 2020).
We are still left behind in having the so much needed support for a decent program for public and private companies to provide to their employees. We still need to push lawmakers and lead social agendas about the importance of having parental leave in the workforce.
References
Mirkovic, K. R., Perrine, C. G., & Scanlon, K. S. (2016). Paid maternity leave and breastfeeding outcomes. Birth, 43(3), 233–239.
Jou, J., Kozhimannil, K. B., Abraham, J. M., Blewett, L. A., & McGovern, P. M. (2018). Paid maternity leave in the United States: associations with maternal and infant health. Maternal and child health journal, 22(2), 216–225.
Baum II, C. L. (2003). The effect of state maternity leave legislation and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act on employment and wages. Labour Economics, 10(5), 573–596
Salganicoff, A. (2018). The Importance of Strengthening Workplace and Health Policies to Support Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding Medicine, 13(8), 532–534.
Among 41 countries, only the U.S. lacks paid parental leave. (2020). Retrieved 11 August 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/16/u-s-lacks-mandated-paid-parental-leave/
