Paid Parental Leave

1448 Words3 Pages

Paid Parental Leave: The Next Stage in the Worker’s Rights Movement It almost goes without saying that the free market economy in the U.S. is little concerned with the wellbeing of the middle class employees upon whom it depends. For instance, the nation trails the rest of the developed world in terms of career leave for the parents of newborn children (Dustmann & Schonberg 191). While the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows both parents of a newborn up to twelve weeks away from work, nothing in the law stipulates that either mothers or fathers are to be compensated during their time off (Dustmann & Schonberg 191). For this reason, parents are often unable to spend an adequate amount of time with their infants before placing them …show more content…

Often, newborns arrive with health issues that require the close attention of one or both parents. Some examples of these include jaundice, abnormal blood sugar, distended bowels, coughing, and respiratory distress (American Academy of Pediatrics). In most cases, these problems go away on their own, but only if there is someone available to provide the infant with the quality care it needs. For babies born with more severe conditions, however, parental attentiveness is even more of a necessity. However, quality nurturing is impossible when both mother and father are unable to take an extended leave for lack of an …show more content…

A mother recovering from a cesarean, for instance, needs to have someone at home to bring her meals, help care for the newborn, and assist her about the house and so forth (Elliot-Carter & Harper). The best person for this role is the child’s father, when appropriate. Time away from work not only allows the father to help care for the recovering mother and her newborn, but it also enables to bond with the infant during a critical stage of development. Unfortunately, most fathers in the U.S. take very little time away from work at all. This is because men often fear that too much downtime from work will reflect poorly upon their careers. (Ranson 741). Additionally, it is difficult for a father to give up a salary for three months when the child’s mother is also receiving no pay. Under those circumstances, debt and financial difficulties for the new family can add up fairly quickly, at just the time when the family needs financial resources more than

Open Document