Opinion Why doesnt the US have paid maternity leave?

[AWilder]

I think this would help with a lot of the issues with families dissolving and young folks not having kids.
Pretty much every other first world nation is able to do this.

yeah but not every other nation has air to ground guided missiles with samurai swords.

 

[scoopj]

Like @scoopj said, real jobs do.

I suppose it was a bit insensitive of me, but point being many employers provide it. In fact, my company provides paternity as well.

 

[jk7707]

Because there's one major party in the country that despises anything that would lessen corporate profits in any instance whatsoever...

House GOP memo blasts Whitmer’s paid family leave proposal as ‘summer break for adults’

 

[650lb Sumo]

Today I learned the US doesn't have paid maternity leave.

What the fuck?

It is mental. I always shake my head when I find out how little annual leave (vacation days) Americans have. It's like 50% less than us in the UK, and that's just for someone like me who's like a mid-level guy. My superiors get like 45-50 days of vacation a year.

 

[USA!USA!]

I have unlimited PTO, which is a scam, but it is probably around 2-3 weeks a year before they'd say anything.. I usually take around 2 weeks a year in additional to the normal holiday days they give.

One place I worked had a sabbatical for employees - which was like 2 or 3 months at a time you could take off once every 10 years.. which was wild.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

So do they hire someone to cover that person's position for 2 years and then get rid of them when the woman is ready to return back to work?

Pretty much but in that time someone else probably leaves the company and they get a job and if not it's good experience to get something else

 

[oldshadow]

We have it. You can take your allowed time off with pay. Then if you want more it's unpaid. At most big companies anyway. For a small business forcing this would kill them.

 

[Seano]

Lots of businesses have paid maternity leave.

The truth is that it could be potentially crippling to small businesses. Many places just scrape by and can't afford to pay someone to cover someone for months while they have a baby, paying their salary plus finding someone to cover the person on leave.
Its kind of like asking why every one doesn't just pay their employees $50 dollars/hour. Its a nice idea, but not feasible for small business.

 

[Rational Poster]

We have it. You can take your allowed time off with pay. Then if you want more it's unpaid. At most big companies anyway. For a small business forcing this would kill them.

I mean.. if you have to take time off that's unpaid then it's not paid maternity leave is it?

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

They already get a free trip to Maury... what else do they want

 

[oldshadow]

I mean.. if you have to take time off that's unpaid then it's not paid maternity leave is it?

Part of it is. If you want more then make your decision.

 

[Rational Poster]

Part of it is. If you want more then make your decision.

So then we don't have paid maternity leave like most other peer countries which have 3 months or more guaranteed paid maternity leave.

 

[Richmma80]

Maternity and paternity leave should be 10 years

WTF can you do in 3 months? The baby can't even feed itself at that age.

 

[650lb Sumo]

The US Navy has ten Nimitz class aicraft carriers, each of which cost (on average) $11 billion to build in 2023 dollars. I have seen estimates for the annual cost of operating one from $448 million (human answer - the AI on this page says several billion), through $726 million, to $2.9 billion. The cost of decommissioning one is estimated at $825 million. As they are decommissioned they are planned to be replaced one for one with Gerald R. Ford class carriers, which cost $15.9 billion each.

It may also interest you to know that the Afghanistan War cost the US $318 million per day.

 

[DoctorTaco]

Got 3 months off for my daughter.

Should be mandatory in Murka too but it's probably seen as socialism.

This.

 

[Siver!]

Murcia is far too right wing for it to be of any benefit to it's citizens. Money first, people second.

 

[Sinister]

So do they hire someone to cover that person's position for 2 years and then get rid of them when the woman is ready to return back to work?

Just an FYI, the idea of dedicating your entire life to a company for the sake of the company is also an American thing. Normal job turnover will be a few years as most people with jobs in places with less insane work cultures will be pursuing careers. In other words having an employee for 2 years isnt going to be negatively perceived, and as long as management and that employee communicate with each other on their needs, one only needs the position filled for 2 years and one only wants to be there 2 years, its not a stressful arrangement. This is why you dont hear alarmist headlines in the US about foreign companies collapsing because one woman on maternity leave actually used all her time.

 

[jk7707]

Lots of businesses have paid maternity leave.

The truth is that it could be potentially crippling to small businesses. Many places just scrape by and can't afford to pay someone to cover someone for months while they have a baby, paying their salary plus finding someone to cover the person on leave.
Its kind of like asking why every one doesn't just pay their employees $50 dollars/hour. Its a nice idea, but not feasible for small business.

And yet, just about every other developed nation has it and their businesses survive. It's almost like we've been conditioned to put the well being and profits of businesses of our own personal well being.

As a side note, this is the same exact argument made when any sort of improvements in working conditions. Benefits, paid time off, higher minimum wage, mandatory breaks etc.

 

[BFoe]

Part of it is. If you want more then make your decision.

None of it is guaranteed by the federal government though. Anyone wanting paid maternity or paternity leave is subject to whatever the state law is, or whatever their particular place of employment offers.

 

[Sinister]

And yet, just about every other developed nation has it and their businesses survive. It's almost like we've been conditioned to put the well being and profits of businesses of our own personal well being.

As a side note, this is the same exact argument made when any sort of improvements in working conditions. Benefits, paid time off, higher minimum wage, mandatory breaks etc.

A little while ago I was reading about how wealthy merchants fared against monarchies. Being serfs and slaves sucked hardest, but merchants with money were still incredibly oppressed by monarchies, so much so that many of them funded class uprisings. Small business owners in the US are like the merchant class here. Technically there is no monarchy, but wealthy wannabe oligarchs often target small businesses with corporate consolidation, which ends up forcing small business owners back into wage slavery. But its able to be maintained by perpetuating this notion that the REAL problem is workers not giving enough of themselves and their lives to small business owners.