Bernie Sanders says 'every other major country' has family paid leave except United States
By Amy Sherman on Wednesday, October 14th, 2015 at 2:21 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders defended his record as a democratic socialist by calling for the United States to bring its family leave policy in line with other countries.
"You see every other major country saying to moms that, when you have a baby, we're not gonna separate you from your newborn baby, because we are going to have medical and family paid leave, like every other country on Earth," he said during the first Democratic presidential debate.
We will put aside the narrower question of medical leave and focus on family leave.
United States lags behind on paid leave
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In the United States, under the federal Family Medical Leave Act, employers with 50 or more workers must allow parents 12 weeks of job-protected leave annually to care for a newborn or to care for a family member with a serious medical condition. While that law protects their job, in most cases the leave is unpaid.
Some employers choose to offer paid leave. About 13 percent of workers had access to some kind of paid family leave in 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s a very low rate compared to the rest of the developed world.
Of 41 other developed economies, the United States also mandates the shortest period of unpaid leave — 12 weeks. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom and Australia each allow a full year off (though not all of it is paid)....
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