U.S. maternity leave among the worst

[wicket]

LINK

While employers are required to give time off, the United States is one of just five countries that does not guarantee pay to new mothers, according to a new study.

The United States is one of only five countries that does not provide or require employers to provide some form of paid maternity leave, placing it behind a majority of the world when it comes to instituting family-oriented job policies, according to a new study.

In a study from McGill University's Institute for Health and Social Policy, the United States, Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea were the only countries out of 173 studied that didn't guarantee any paid leave for mothers. Among the 168 countries that do, 98 offer 14 or more weeks of paid leave.

Overall, the study's other major findings indicate that workplace policies in the United States for families -- such as paid sick days and support for breast-feeding -- are weaker than those in all high-income countries as well as many middle and low-income countries. "More countries are providing the workplace protections that millions of Americans can only dream of," Jody Heymann, director of McGill's Institute for Health and Social Policy, who led study, said in a statement.

At least 145 countries provide paid sick days for short- and long-term illnesses, with 127 countries providing for a week or more every year, the study found. In addition, 137 countries require its employers to provide paid annual leave, whereas the Unites States does not guarantee any sort of paid leave.

[JackintheGreen]

1. No surprise...

I'm in grad school, and up until a couple of years ago my school's maternity policy was:

Graduate students have no business having children while in school.

[MountainLaurel]

5. A grad school friend of mine

Was told the exact same thing by her advisor. When she was 8 months pregnant. Needless to say, she found a new advisor.

[Orrex]

2. Maternity leave in the US is a joke, and paternity leave is worse

Yes indeed, we're the nation of family values...

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Been there, done that

My wife and I just had a baby last October and she had almost no paid time to use during her maternity leave and without the generosity of family members, we would've been completely unable to pay all of our bills during her maternity leave. My wife just went back to work in January and we are STILL struggling to get "back on our feet" financially. It always strikes me as slightly contradictory (and anti-family) for the so-called "family values" crowd (i.e. Dr. Laura) to endlessly pontificate about how good it would be for our society if women stayed home and raised their children instead of shipping them off to daycare to be raised by strangers but don't make ANY efforts (and would probably OPPOSE any such efforts) to create the kind of social and economic conditions in this country that would actually allow women whom want to stay at home with their children to do so if they choose (because apparently it's the parents' fault for not being able to afford to live on one salary, at least according to Dr. Laura). At the very least, it would be wonderful if women in this country had the means to take a decent maternity/paternity leave without having to worry so much about how the family bills are going to get paid regardless of how much paid time off (if their employer even offers it) they have accumulated by the time that they deliver.

[Maine-ah]

6. ha, I had none.

no leave, no money. :grr: 3 months now, I'm quite happy being a SAHM, though we're so poor I have had to pick up a waitressing job at night. The only thing that has saved our asses at the moment was our tax returns.

[wicket]

8. If you don't mind me saying....

....that is one beautiful baby!

I'm sorry for your financial woes. Are you on WIC? When my mom was raising the 3 of us in the early 80s, WIC was a godsend.

:hug:

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Odd how people like to go on about us being the greatest of countries, but the reality is

we often have such a Third World way of doing so many things.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. Health Care

Health care in this country is a terrific case in point.

[wicket]

9. kick

:kick: