It’s Mat Leave Monday! Today I’m talking about maternity leave in the United States – or, more accurately, the lack of maternity leave. As always, I have no first-hand experience with countries outside of Canada. If you are in the US you might want some info straight from the horse’s mouth.
Wikipedia says:
Five countries in the world do not offer some form of paid parental leave – Australia, the United States, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea. However, most employees in Australia are entitled to at least 12 months’ unpaid leave for the primary carer, and new parents are able to receive a Baby Bonus…
(If you’re curious, I wrote about maternity leave in Australia back in January.)
The US stands apart as an industrialized nation that does not guarantee some sort of maternity leave to all employees. Pregnant women and new parents, including adoptive parents, may be entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA became law in February of 1993. It guarantees eligible employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period, and covers pregnancy and childbirth, as well as caring for a child following birth, adoption, or foster placement.
FMLA also covers employees who are ill or must care for immediate family members under other conditions, it is not solely used as maternity leave. Because of the way this is written, it means that both mothers and fathers can receive FMLA separately, provided they are both eligible. So FMLA can serve as paternity leave as well as maternity leave. After all, fathers are also immediate family members of their new son or daughter.
Who is eligible for coverage under FMLA? You must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months, and you must have worked at least 1250 hours in the last year (that’s an average of a little more than 24 hours / week). In addition, your employer must have at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. So, if you work 20 hours / week for a small business, you are not entitled to any leave under FMLA when you have a baby. This means that your job is not protected, you can be fired or demoted or required to return to work when your baby is only weeks old.
But let’s assume you are covered by FMLA. What benefits will you receive? Your employer is not required to offer you any sort of pay while you are on leave. They are required to maintain your health coverage and hold your job for you. When you return you must be restored to an equivalent position with the same pay and benefits.
So what do American moms do? A lot of them cobble together some sort of leave by saving up vacation days, sick leave, or family leave before giving birth. Because even if you are eligible for FMLA, taking 12 weeks of unpaid leave, especially if both parents want to spend some time with their new baby, is not feasible for many families. Good employers may be willing to work with new parents, and offer more extensive benefit plans. And in some cases moms return to work when their babies are only weeks old, because they have no other real options.
It’s certainly unfortunate that American mothers do not have access to the same benefits that we enjoy here in Canada. Organizations such as Moms Rising are working to raise awareness and advocate for moms and babies. And some US states are now mandating paid leaves. I will discuss which states those are, and what sorts of schemes they offer, next week.
In the meantime, I think I’ll go sing O Canada and watch the beer commercial that passes for our pledge of allegiance.
WOW. That completely floors me, that American Moms don’t get paid mat leave. That is SO bizarre!! (I had no idea).
Love the beer commercial!!! lol
I just can’t comprehend it. Having a number of very good American mommy friends, I am in awe of how they juggle family and work . . . often with a baby who is possibly less than 3 months old. I remember 3 months old. I NEVER slept. I looked and felt like crap and was like a moving zombie. I can’t fathom that I could have worked at that point. And imagine if you had older children too? Juggling my third was/is tricky b/c I had two kids not much older than her.
I’m gonna stop complaining about the weather and shut up and be happy I live here now
Great post, Amber!
Just another reason I am so happy to be Canadian.
I think the first time I found out was on Regis and Kelly. I was shocked. I was so glad to be Canadian at that moment. It would have completely changed my experience with my son right now.
A lot of what I learn about the US (allegedly The world superpower) is a complete surprise to me – almost as much as the surprise when I drove south to San Francisco from BC. I was amazed at how ‘backwards’ a lot of it was, having been insulted on a daily basis with tales of how quaint and old fashioned the UK was found by N American tourists. Now all I can say is, at least we look after our people.
Like I said on an earlier post, my mat leave will be my sick days that I’ve saved over the last 6 years. I’ve got about 75, and I’ll be paid for all of them, and my insurance benefits will continue. It’s nice because I know I’ll have it better than many people, but at the same time I started saving these days to prepare long ago. I’m jealous of a paid leave! But then again, I feel like if I’m not working and I don’t have sick days I’ve saved, why should my employer have to pay me? I don’t get that, but maybe it’s because it’s not part of my culture.
Then again, look at all the tax money in the US going to failing businesses and greedy CEO’s. Clearly our priorities are not straight here.
Great post! I hope President Obama does something about this, but like Abbie just said, it is ingrained in the culture not to have it so I wonder how well it will go over with the general public who are still freaking out about the economy if it is mandated?
I cobbled together my leave in two parts. “Pregnancy/Childbirth Leave” from my employer (66% pay for six weeks from government short term disability leave) and “Family Medical Leave” (55% pay for six weeks from a California FML program). My husband also took twelve weeks, six of which were paid at 55% from FML. Different world over here . . . I remember how amazed I was the first time I heard Canadians had it so good for maternity leave!
I guess in some ways maternity leave does seem like a privilege, not a right. But given how vitally important a child’s early months are, doesn’t it only make sense? It really annoys me when people say it’s your choice to have children so you should just suck up whatever inconveniences occur as a result. The fact is, if everyone stops having children you won’t have any damn people to support you in your old age! I didn’t get maternity leave because I was working in a bookstore. We were lucky — my husband had a good job. I can’t believe the United States, a so-called superpower, is so barbarian in this respect.
After the birth of my third child, one of my European collegues asked me how long I would be taking off for paternity leave. I had to inform him that paternity leave is non-existent in the US. He couldn’t believe it. I informed him that most American men probably wouldn’t take the leave even if it were offered.
“Perhaps more effort needs to be spent in examining class conflict when working on improving breastfeeding rates. Paid maternity leave * would be an excellent place to start…”
from what i’ve experienced re: US attitudes to ‘socialised’ universal care, there seems to be a lot of engrained opinion and, dare i say it, brainwashing.
i still find it unbelievable that the strong don’t look after the weak
I’m in my 8th month of pregnancy and I live in the US. I finally get to start my maternity leave this week (much excitement as I’ve been having some pretty severe contractions and I work at a job where I’m on my feet all day and do a lot of lifting). When applying for leave, I was asked, “Why are you starting leave so soon?” So soon? Really? I’ll get 2 weeks paid leave (as required by my State) and then 12 weeks unpaid. Did a bit of work, but was able to get my leave extended, but unpaid. My husband can take time off, but it will be unpaid. He’s one of the few fathers in this country who would LOVE to be able to spend more time on leave with the baby and me. But we can’t afford it. In fact, we’re going to be in a stressful situation when my leave ends. Because day-care is so costly here and I wont earn enough with my job to cover the cost for that…so I might as well stay home and raise the baby. But it’s almost impossible to live on one income here, as well. So we are in a bind. This isn’t the only reason I’ve been so disgusted with living in “the land of the free.”