Parental Leave in the United States
New Guinea, Liberia, Swaziland, and the United States. These countries share at least one thing in common. They do not guarantee paid parental leave. There is only a handful of countries that force many new parents to choose between their family and their career, the U.S. being one. Standing as the only industrialized nation in the world without paid parental leave, the U.S. is lagging far behind.
Currently, the only job protection the government offers new mothers and fathers is from the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 or the FMLA. The Act provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave *break* for those who are eligible. How thoughtful, right? Only 60% of U.S. workers are actually protected by the FMLA. According to the U.S. Department of Labor “In order for an employee to be eligible, he or she must work for a firm that employs 50 or more employees within a radius of 75 miles, have been with the firm for at least one year, and worked at least 1,250 hours over the past year.” These nuances among others result in 40% of U.S. workers (especially those in the private sector) being ineligible for unpaid leave.
While the FMLA’s ineffectiveness affects both women and men, it is important to recognize the greater impact it has on women. The mother in a family is typically the one to stay home and take care of the child after birth.
Women largely began entering the workforce in the early 1900s and are still working to be respected and viewed as equals to their male peers. The lack of federal support in terms of maternity leave greatly limits the success of a woman’s career or even her ability to have one at all, hindering her economic freedom and perpetuating the systematic oppression of women.
It is also important to recognize how the lack of support from the FMLA burdens families of lower socioeconomic status. The current parental leave policies in the U.S. are not a major concern to middle or upper class families who have the resources to support themselves. Many families rely on one parent to be employed, and the other to stay home and care for the kids or if both parents work a nanny is hired. But in families where it is imperative that both parents are employed, taking time off to care for a child is extremely difficult and stressful. This often leads to women returning to work much earlier than they should.
In a study conducted by Sara Markowitz, a researcher for the Cambridge Health Alliance, the greater the length of maternity leave, the better the woman’s health. Women who took longer leaves visited the doctor less frequently and showed to be mentally healthier. The well-being of a mother can directly influence the welfare of their children, especially when they are very young. “Recent studies suggest that some forms of maternal employment during the child's first year are detrimental to children's cognitive development and lead to more behavioral problems (Blau and Grossberg 1992; Brooks- Gunn, Han. and Waldfogel, 2002; Waldfogel, Han. and Brooks-Gunn 2002; Baum 2003).” These studies imply that longer maternal leaves will benefit children.
The biggest counterargument to paid family leave in the U.S. is that it would cost too much and hurt the economy. But contrary to that misconstrued belief, investing in the well-being of new mothers and their babies is investing in the future workers and leaders of our country. Jessica Shortfall who studies the role of working mothers brought up the point in her 2015 TedTalk that women are needed in the workforce and women are needed to have babies, and yet it is still very challenging for a woman to do both in the U.S.
According to the New York Times, in states that have already provided paid maternity leave such as California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island women who took paid leave were 40% less likely to receive public aid or food stamps and worked 15-20% more hours than women that didn’t take leave. Additionally, 95% of all workers stated that paid maternity either has no impact or a positive impact on the workplace and families.
The FMLA is an injustice to American workers, women, and families of low socioeconomic status. It is in the best interest of our nation that Congress revise the Family and Medical Leave Act to guarantee paid parental leave to all Americans. In the wise words of Former President Obama “It’s time we stop treating child care as a side issue or a women’s issue and treat it like the national economic priority that it is."
Works Cited
Chatterji, Pinka, and Sara Markowitz. “Does the Length of Maternity Leave Affect Maternal
Health?” Southern Economic Journal, vol. 72, no. 1, July 2005, pp. 16–41.
EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/20062092.
Deahl, Jessica. “Countries Around The World Beat The U.S. On Paid Parental Leave.” NPR,
NPR, 6 Oct. 2016,
parental-leave.
Miller, Claire Cain. “The Economic Benefits of Paid Parental Leave.” The New York
Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/upshot/the-economic-benefits-of-paid-parental-leave.html.
Neckermann, Christina. “An International Embarassment: The United States as an
Anomaly in Maternity Leave Policy.” Harvard International Review, vol. 38, no. 3,
Summer 2017, p. 36. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cpid,url&custid=s117619
&db=f5h&AN=123620525.
Shortall, Jessica, director. The US Needs Paid Family Leave- for the Sake of Its Future. TED,
Oct. 2015,
www.ted.com/talks/jessica_shortall_the_us_needs_paid_family_leave_for_the_sake_of_its_future/transcript.
Wage and Hour Division. “Family and Medical Leave Act.” U.S. Department of Labor,
www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fmla.
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