This week Rose turned 7 … weeks. She is a lovely little girl, not causing (knock on wood) major problems. Once in a while she even takes longer naps, about five hours in a row, and they even occur in her own crib:) I am happy that I can spend a lot of time with her, without worrying about when my maternity leave would be over. As a working mom in the USA, I would be interviewing nannies right about now.
This is because in the USA, parents do not possess any legal entitlement to paid maternity leave.
American women do have a guaranteed 12 weeks unpaid leave under the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), but before that they must be employed full time for at least a year, and the company for which they work must have a minimum of 50 employees.
Only a few states, including California, have introduced several weeks paid (but not 100% reimbursed) family leave, but that’s still far from European standards.
Employers of course, are free to offer child care benefits as a perq. For example, Facebook gives 17 weeks of paid leave to fathers and mothers; same-sex couples are also eligible.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, only 12% of the private sector, and 16% of the public sector have access to paid family leave. Therefore, many women either do not take a longer leave or take a career stall, if they can afford it.
It seems that this issue is rarely debated and discussed. Business woman like Sheryl Sandberg (last year I wrote about the book Lean In) or Susan Wojcicki do talk about it, however, it seems to me that this is still does not get the attention it deserves.
Maybe American women do not need that kind of luxury? This does not make sense. The American fertility rate is not significantly lower than Europe’s and professional fulfillment is equally important. Europe figures out how to take care of parents, and still be competitive in business. Why can’t the U.S.?
On the U.S. Labor Department webpage I found an interesting campaign #LeadonLeave, which criticizes the status quo and calls for the necessary changes. There are videos showing the difficult first few months of working moms and articles convincing that paid maternity leave has positive effects for business, despite the cost. California is leading the way, sheepishly relative to Europe, yet few other states are following.
On the political level the need for paid leave was mentioned by Barack Obama, this year, in his State of the Union speech. Among the current presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton is the one talking the most about it. She also believes in greater access to daycare.
Although the majority of women supporting both Democrats and Republicans are in favor of implementing paid leave, it seems to me, it won’t be decisive in the upcoming presidential election, even with the majority of voices being female in the 2012 elections.
The only politics that I can do at the moment, is to join the American stay-at-homes Moms and get back to changing diapers and feeding Rose. 🙂
Watch Hillary’s Clinton video released on Mother’s Day:
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| Priceless.. |
 #LeadonLeave USA! |
Great read:
Take a look at these videos: