Mandatory Paid Maternity Leave - In every country but the US

[rollingrock]

Apparently, we're the only country in the western hemisphere with no mandatory PAID maternity leave benefits for expectant parents, with the exception of five states. Why isn't this part of the current healthcare debate?




----------------

U.S. stands apart from other nations on maternity leave


The Associated Press/USA Today

In Santa Fe New Mexico, Linda Strauss McIlroy, a first-time mother, is trying to get used to the thought of soon putting her two-month-old boy in day care so she can get back to work. "It's hard for me to imagine leaving him," she says. "Just not being with him all day, leaving him with a virtual stranger. And then that's it till, you know, I retire. It's kind of crazy to think about it."

Across the border in Vancouver, Canada, Suzanne Dobson is back at work after 14 months of paid maternity leave. "It was great," she says. "I was still making pretty good money for being at home."

Across the ocean, in Sweden, Magnus Larsson is looking forward to splitting 16 months of parental leave at 80% pay with his girlfriend. They are expecting their first baby in a week.

....To put it another way, out of 168 nations in a Harvard University study last year, 163 had some form of paid maternity leave, leaving the United States in the company of Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland...

continued
www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-07-26-maternity-leave_x.htm



Linda Strauss McIlroy plays with her two-month-old baby, Gabriel,
whom she'll soon have to put in day care so she can get back to work.

[Twist_U_Up]

1. As a slave "civilian,"

you're allowed to do one thing and one thing only: lick boots

[Deja Q]

2. Do they taste like Chocolate or, if nothing else, Tommy Lee?

:yoiks:

[Twist_U_Up]

9. you tell me

:eyes:

[JerseygirlCT]

3. I'm afraid the answer to your question is easy:

because men don't get pregnant.

[rollingrock]

5. Huh?

what the hell?

[JerseygirlCT]

11. If men were the ones to need the time to recover from childbirth

AND care for a newborn child, it would absolutely be a top priority.

As it is, our society is still both stuck in the 50s wrt family policies and focused far more on mens' health care needs.

[rollingrock]

17. Ahh, got it

excellent point.

[AwakeAtLast]

29. And birth control and abortions would be available for free

Just sayin'. :shrug:

[JerseygirlCT]

30. Yup. nt

[Quantess]

6. Some countries have paternity leave as well.

Sweden is one of them.

[JerseygirlCT]

12. Yup

I think we miss on both counts.

We start with a backwards idea that's still all too prevalent that women are the only ones to care for babies. Men who attempt to take any paternity leave that might technically be afforded to them are often castigated at work for it. It's somehow less masculine.

At the same time, a woman's real need to recuperate from childbirth is also ignored as less than important.

[rollingrock]

13. Yep.

even China gives fathers 10 days of paid leave to be with their wife and baby.


The Canadians are especially generous:

Paid Parental Leave
55% up to $413/week for 50 weeks (15 weeks maternity + 35 weeks parental leave shared with father)



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave

[malaise]

18. They don't get pregnant in the rest of the hemisphere either n/t

[SidDithers]

38. As far as I can tell, Canadian men don't get pregnant either...nt

Sid

[Lucy Goosey]

4. Woah - I had no idea.

(I'm Canadian) That's fucked up, you guys.

At what point will Americans start storming the hospitals and insurance companies, the way French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille?

[rollingrock]

7. Probably never

most of us are too busy watching American Idol.

[Quantess]

33. You mean, too many Americans are busy watching FOX news, hearing "AMERICA = FREEDOM!"

Whatever "freedom" means anymore, to Americans. :eyes:

I think it boils down to the equation, FREEDOM = AMERICA. You live in AMERICA, you got FREEDOM, simple as that. Maybe your rights are systematically being taken away, one by one, but if you live in USA, and the military is fighting somewhere else, you have FREEDOM!!1!!

But now, black people...they already got their own freedom when Lincoln freed the slaves. Ain't so sure Lincoln made the right decision, because now we have a black man in the White House, and our FREEDOMS are turning into COMMUNISM!!!1!

[DebbieCDC]

10. Not until their beer, doritos and NFL on the big screen TV are taken away

THEN they just MIGHT get up off their asses.

Until then forget it.

Sad.

[michreject]

28. They can at least wait

until after football season. :)

[AllyCat]

16. They will right after American Idol is over. But then we have football, and then

Jon and Kate plus 8...shoot. So much TV so little time!

[Libertas1776]

8. Funny how the fundies that rule this country

do nothing but praise the "gift of life" and the "miracle of birth" and denounce birth control and abortion, but the minute that person enters the whole maternity stage, they become such a burden and a nuisance. It reminds of that witch from Everybody Loves Raymond, little Ms Conservative pro lifer, who fired her housekeeper after she got pregnant. The hypocrisy of these people never ceases.

[AllyCat]

14. Remember...once you are out of the womb, you are on your own!

We don't actually like kids and families that can't afford to hire nannies here. What are you a socialist?

[seabeyond]

15. sheeeit. my hubby boss sittin in labor room chatting business with him while my epidural was fading

i am about to deliver and i am feeling the pain.

i hear ya

[Shell Beau]

19. That is so sad. Caring for a newborn is a tremendous amount of work.

Newborns need around the clock care. They must eat on demand which is usually every couple of hours. That itself is stressful enough, not to mention trying to recover from giving birth. The last thing a new mother should have to worry about during that time is if she will have the money to continue to care for her child or will her job still be there when she is able to return. And I will say it would have been extremely helpful to have had my husband with me at home during those first weeks. He was able to stay with me a week, and my mom did come for a week. Not everyone has that luxury. I wonder how well I would have faired without them. I am sure I would have managed, but it would have been so much harder. I am self employed, so taking off was my option. I didn't get any pay for being off, but still I didn't suffer any other consequences.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

20. better vacation time, better vacation pay

better health care, more job security, higher wages....Higher standard of living all around. Well, they don't have Hollywood, do they? Or the NFL...

[Blue Diadem]

21. My daughter couldn't even take 6 weeks unpaid off. Her work kept calling

and insisting she return. IIRC, her Dr. finally gave her permission at 5 weeks.

My daughter in law works for a hospital. Her first year on her job was the same year she got pregnant and gave birth. She'd accumulated enough paid time off that she was at least able to be paid for the entire time she stayed home, which was at least 2 months.

I knew there were some countries that had paid maternity leave but I had no idea it was that many.

[rollingrock]

24. I bet a lot of women

are under pressure from their companies to forego the full time off. the measly 6 weeks you get in California is well below average for the Americas, but most companies don't even want to give you even that much.

Note how almost every other country on the list below gives you over 10 weeks!

[rucky]

25. Her boss is breaking the law.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/

[Blue Diadem]

36. I don't think they employed enough people to qualify.

Small town business. It's been over 10 yrs now and she went on within the next year or so to a much higher paying job elsewhere.

Thanks for the info rucky. I never knew the details of it. My husband had to use it several years ago just to get 3 days off when I had an emergency hospitalization and heart cath.

[jtrockville]

22. People in every other country don't mind government intrusion.

For some reason in this country, corporations have convinced people that having government regulation (aka "intrusion") on anything, even things that are a tremendous benefit to the people, is bad.

Go figure.

[mrbarber]

23. What a shock.

[xultar]

26. Where are the Pro-lifers...they care about the fetus but not the baby.

[glowing]

27. Time for women to make their way into the seat of power... I think family

issues will become much more sensible. Shoot, I'd love to cut a full week down to 30hrs a week. 6 hr days. What in the world do they need with the extra 2. Most people know that 2 hrs is wasted on the computer, bathroom breaks, hr lunch and then the coffee refills. With 6hrs, people would get their shit done, take a 1/2 an hr lunch and be home for the kids at the end of the day.. However, the pay would have to be similar to a 40hr work week. I know times are "desperate" for a job, but no reason if we are starting over to not make worker conditions better.. Also, time to increase the min. wage to a living wage.

[followthemoney]

31. U.S. is a brutal nation of misogynists, racists, unprovoked attacks against ...

against foreign civilians, torturers, supporters of dictators, a weak domestic democracy, and simple dolts who choose to deny these realities.

[applegrove]

32. And they have just figured out that breastfeeding, as opposed to formula, makes babies

smarter.

[LeftyMom]

35. They figured that one out a long time ago. Ten IQ points different, on average.

And before anybody starts in with the "I/my babies was/are formula fed and I/they am/are teh smrt!" thing, keep in mind that those ten points were probably the ones that let you know what "on average" means and whether or not it's maligning you personally. ;)

[AspenRose]

34. Aaaaugh!

x( :argh: :mad: :nuke: :grr:

[pleah]

37. K& R

[pipi_k]

39. "Family Values"....doncha just love it....

Where the hell are the voices of the women this travesty most affects?

Don't women outnumber men in this country?

Come on, ladies...get PISSED!!!!!

[4_TN_TITANS]

40. I got an out-of-office response to an email

from a woman at our Austria location. My jaw hit the floor to see that she was going to out for almost a year for maternity leave. And here the insurance companies try to kick women out of the hospital within 24 hrs. of giving birth.

[Eyerish]

41. K&R

Thanks for posting this!

[bdamomma]

42. even the small island of Bermuda has paid maternity leave.

[CBR]

43. A friend of mine from Canada was shocked when I

explained our maternity policies. A co-worker of mine is not taking any leave in Dec. when she has her first child.