According to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Thomas E. Perez, there are many benefits to paid parental leave, such as: Paid maternity leave can increase female labor force participation by making it easier for women to stay in the workforce after giving birth, which contributes to economic growth. When parents are better supported at work through paid family and medical leave, they are also less likely to rely on public assistance benefits. Paid leave leads to better outcomes for parents and children. Maternity leave improves child health outcomes, including increased birthweight, decreased premature births and decreased infant mortality. Paid leave encourages men to take paternity leave and serve as caregivers, which has a number
In response to the increasing need for employees to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. Without a policy like FMLA in place, many employees often would have had to choose between “the job they need and the family they love” (Hayes). The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 is the first national law created to help Americans balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of the family. It successfully helps bridge the gap between family and work and secures the right for both men and women to get unpaid leave and assistance when dealing with family related circumstances.
Ray et al. Parental Leave Policies in 2 Countries – Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality. Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Our nation has a lot of problems that we need to get lined out to become better as a whole, paid family leave being one of them. Some people will say that paid family leave is bad for business, but recent studies of the three states that are currently offering paid leave,” California, New Jersey and Rhode Island -- New York's plan goes into effect in 2018 -- found that a majority of companies experienced positive or neutral effects on productivity.” While it may not be entirely positive, it’s not negative which is a step in the right direction. Other say that it would be hard to keep women in the workforce, therefore, messing up gender equality, but Schulte says that “there's this sweet spot that most studies will show it's between nine months to a year where nine months is where it's positive and up to a year. Anything longer than a year tends to be kind of a detrimental effect to women's wages, women's return to work and their career prospects.” It’s not an easy process but it’s necessary for our future as a prospering
because the employers do not have to provide health insurance or pension plans for these
fact that it isn’t necessary for one to get an occupation to help support their family
Overall the Family and Medical Leave Act has raised many issues on whether leave should be encourage and/or paid for by the employers. As of today, no haven policy has been enacted to tackle the challenges surrounding this issue, but positive steps have been taken and one day there will be no question that hard working employees will get the rights they
It is important for people that they have to leave the labor force when they would actually like to carry on in their jobs, supporting the retraining of older workers, helping people with young children stay employed, changing disability rules so that partially disabled people can work while receiving some benefits and through many other policies. Doing this is not only good for the economy, but would prove popular too by giving people jobs who want them. Few people leave work due to health or other conditions. (Sanderson,
Recently women’s rights and women’s equality in the workplace has come back to the fore as a topic for discussion in government agencies and the United Nations. Whilst this is a very important topic, when it comes to time off from work when a new child is born, women in the US have some provision, whereas men have none.
Furthermore, marital status and childbearing greatly impact income. A vast majority of women take time off work to have children, thus, they...
America is the one and only developed country that does not offer any paid maternity leave. Maternity leave is a period of absence from work granted to a mother before and after the birth of her child. In America this means twelve weeks of unpaid absence that guarantees her job when she returns. We are so far behind everyone that out of all of the countries around the world seven out of 196 including America do not have mandatory paid maternity leave. (Colorado public radio news) That is a sad figure, to think that we place having a family so high but don’t give the mothers the protection and security they deserve.
Livingston, Gretchen. "The Link between Parental Leave and the Gender Pay Gap." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
...e study found that government aid (e.g. assistance with childcare) was less effective than workplace and family support in reducing this conflict, unless the assistance provided was an extended maternal leave following the birth of the child (Abendroth et al., 2012).
A study shows that 60 per cent of the increase in female labor force participation rate that happened between 1986 and 2006 is due to the decline in fertility is one of the forces behind the increase of the female labor participation rate (FLPR). This decline in fertility may have happened due to the increase in female education which has led to a notable decrease in the number of babies born. Another factor behind the increase in the female labor participation rate would be the expansion of female education that is accountable for the continuous increase of women’s participation in the labor market.
Maternity leave is a time when a woman leaves before her pregnancy and can stay gone from a company anywhere from 4-6 weeks, after the birth of her baby. The promise of holding your job is guaranteed, but on this leave you collect no income. The issues widely debated is whether men should have the option whether to take maternity leave and if maternity leave should be paid. Bonding is crucial to early childhood development for both parents. Introducing a baby into a family’s life, can affect a family financially and physically, due to lack of time with your child.
Men and women are working harder than ever to survive in today's tough economy. It's a big challenge for low and middle class families to survive. To meet growing demands, it's getting difficult for families to depend on one income. To contribute to family income, mothers are coming forward and joining the workforce. Working mothers are the one who takes care of the family and work outside the home. They may be a single mothers or married mothers. Working mothers usually work to support their family financially. Some of the mothers work, just because they are more career-oriented. Working mothers may work part time or full time. Women are now the primary or only income source for 40% of US households with kids, according to a new Pew survey (Wang, Parker and Taylor, ch. 1). They play a major role in raising their family and doing household chores. There are many reasons that why mothers should work.