Mandated Paid Maternity Leave: It's Time to End the Divide Between the 'Haves' and the 'Have-Nots'

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-evans/mandated-paid-maternity-leave_b_5525605.html
Mandated Paid Maternity Leave: It's Time to End the Divide Between the 'Haves' and the 'Have-Nots'
Posted: 06/24/2014

When we examine "have" and "have-not" issues in the United States, we usually think of the digital divide or the enormous gap between the rich and the poor or the difference in resources of city schools and suburban schools. We rarely think of paid family leave, but we should. There's a huge have/have-not divide between moms who receive paid maternity leave and moms who only receive either Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time (12 weeks of unpaid leave, which is mandated for companies with 50 or more employees and applies to about half of U.S. workers) or no job-guaranteed time away from work...

...Of all companies in the U.S., only 16 percent offer paid maternity leave. That leaves new moms at 84 percent of all companies on the have-not side of this issue. Of all states in the union, only a handful, including California and New Jersey, mandate paid leave for moms. Of all job types, women in professional and managerial roles are most likely to receive paid leave; many hourly, technical, unskilled and low-paid workers get no paid time off.

As with most have/have-not gaps, there is something doubly or triply unfair about the paid/unpaid divide. New mothers who have the most physically demanding jobs are least likely to have paid time off to recover from the enormously taxing effort of giving birth. Families already struggling to make ends meet receive no pay for the time they stay home with their newborn. And moms who most need their jobs are forced to go back to work too soon because they can't live without their paycheck.

This scenario seems all the more absurd or outrageous when you consider the global haves and have-nots of paid leave. Only the U.S., Swaziland, Lesotho and Papua New Guinea allow their citizens to go unpaid during the critical and expensive time of a new birth. Nearly all of the world is on the have column, and the U.S. stands nearly alone in the have-not column. If that sounds odd to you, imagine how it feels to a mom in Anywhere, U.S.A., who has to return to work before three months because she can't afford to go without her paycheck.... MORE at link posted above.

[kcr]

1. Corporations will somehow tie it to religion and claim exemption

Not to mention the climate that already exists in this country that protects corporations and bends over backwards to make things easier for them, which is why we lag so far behind other countries on maternity leave, as well as other labor issues.

[dilby]

2. Every woman should get 6 months paid by the Government after they have a child.

Whether they are working or not, this should be a basic right supplied by the Government and not the corporations. The reason corporations should be cut from the picture is that it's not fair that the female CEO of a company would get paid huge sums while the cashier at McDonalds would get crap. Both of them should get an equal amount to help sustain them, their family and their new child while they are out of work. This should also be given to women who are not working to insure that the child is getting adequate care.

If you make corporations pay for it they will figure out ways to weasel out of paying it like they do with the ACA, make it a Government program and pay it with tax dollars.

[leftstreet]

3. DURec

[Omaha Steve]

4. K&R!

Thanks for posting. I found this in a search.

OS