Nearly 80% of US workers don't receive paid family leave
The US is still the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee paid leave to its citizens, with nearly 80% of American workers not receiving paid family leave, a report says.
This means they have to choose between earning a paycheck or bonding with their newborns, shows a report by NYU.
In 2021, a push by Democrats to establish a national paid leave program under the Build Back Better Act failed after their bill faltered in the Senate and was eventually shelved when it could not garner enough votes.
The lack of paid leave has dire consequences for both new mothers and their babies, according to Natalie Brito, assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University’s Steinhart School.
However, Brito says that currently just 23% of all employed workers in the US receive paid parental leave through their employers.
“Nine states and the District of Columbia currently offer some form of paid leave, via state-run programs or temporary disability insurance, that allows parents to have partially-paid time off work to care for a new child. But in reality, these policies are very inconsistent in how much paid time parents are able to receive and the amount of wage replacement during leave,” she told NYU.
She went on to say that the problem is worse for Black mothers, single mothers, and mothers with lower levels of education as they “have significantly less access to both paid and unpaid leave.”
These groups of people are more likely to “return to work too early after childbirth,” she said, adding this will have bad impacts on both children and mothers.
“One report estimated that almost a quarter of mothers who did not have access to paid leave returned to work within 10 days of giving birth.”
"Mothers need to be able to physically and mentally recover or persevere through the many postpartum challenges during this time," Brito said.
As of 2020, the United States is the only country among the 38 in the OECD, an organization of most of the world’s largest economies, that does not grant any paid family leave to childbearing women.
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