A friend of mine is getting ready to have her first baby and is understandably anxious about how she’s going to seamlessly juggle the responsibilities of her big job while leaving her desk several times a day to pump — all of which will be bookended in the mornings and evenings with a long commute to and from work.
“I completely wish this country gave women six months for maternity leave,” she said. “Even partial return for three of those months would be great, i.e. working part time to ease back into it.”
You don’t have to look far beyond the United States to see other countries with enviable family leave policies that are set in stone (and in the law books). Here, on the other hand, many women are lucky if they get 6-12 weeks of unpaid leave (depending on the size of the company for which they work) after giving birth. Their partners are fortunate if they can use a week’s vacation time to spend with the new baby.
President Obama is not only sympathetic to the idea of mandating paid family leave, he’s actually making it happen. According to The Huffington Post, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett posted on Jan. 14 on LinkedIn that Obama is signing an executive action mandating at least six weeks of paid family leave for all federal workers.
In Why We Think Paid Leave is a Worker’s Right, Not a Privilege, Jarrett said the administration “can’t say we stand for family values when so many women in this country have to jeopardize their financial security just to take a few weeks off of work after giving birth. We can’t say we’re for middle-class stability when a man has to sacrifice his economic security to care for his ailing mother.”
The president will also be pushing Congress to pass legislation that would urge non-federal employers to follow suit in offering paid leave, particularly since the stress of balancing family and career isn’t exclusive to government workers. And it’s not just about giving birth, either — it’s about sick children needing to stay home from school and their parents feeling torn about missing work. Or wanting to be there for an ailing relative but feeling guilty for skipping out on meetings or worrying about the lost wages.
The goal, Jarrett says, it to fully support and empower “working parents in both their roles as workers and parents.” The White House plans on helping the states and cities that are “leading the way in this fight to pass laws to protect their workers.”
President Obama is asking Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, which would press states and cities to provide workers within their borders with up to seven days a year of paid sick time as well as paid leave programs. And he’s putting his money where his mouth is by ensuring federal employees get at least six weeks of paid sick leave following the birth of a child, with the possibility of another six weeks of paid administrative leave.
Jarrett said 43 million American workers in the private sector have no form of paid sick leave, with only three states offering paid family and medical leave. This leaves the United States as the sole developed country not to offer paid maternity leave. It’s no secret that employers who feel valued by their employees in terms of pay and benefits tend to perform better — Costco, anyone?
For far too many women — my friend included — worrying about how to make it work after giving birth is a depressing fact of life. The fact that the president is trying to shift the paradigm, on the other hand, is music to the ears of those with families or wanting one. It’s also a change that’s long overdue, but one that’s warmly welcome despite being embarrassingly past its expiration date.
Image courtesy of Pacific Coast News