U.S. Finally Pulling Ahead of Papua New Guinea As Obama Orders Federal Employers To Offer Paid Maternity Leave

For far too long, the United States has held the unenviable position of being tied for dead last with Papua New Guinea when it came to rankings of countries that offered paid maternity leave to new mothers. The U.S. and Papua New Guinea are the only two countries in the world that do not offer any sort of cash assistance benefit to new parents. The U.S guarantees that a new parent’s job will be held for a maximum of twelve weeks if the person met certain criteria, such as working for a company large enough to be held accountable under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and if the person had worked for the minimum number of hours required by FMLA in the previous year. That guaranteed maternity leave, however, is not paid.

Not only do the majority of the 185 countries studied by the International Labor Organization offer paid maternity leave, many offer paid paternity leave as well, and the shortest duration of that maternity leave (belonging to Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Mexico, and India) is nearly double the paltry forty-two days (six weeks) granted under President Obama’s recent order. Obama’s directive, for federal employers to pay their employees for maternity leave, has another forty-some million in the private sector still left unpaid. Only three states (California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island) have state level requirements for paid maternity leave, and only about sixteen percent of employers voluntarily offer paid leave.

Many white collar jobs are learning quickly that it costs much more money (estimates range from 50 to 200 percent of the worker’s salary) to replace an employee than to retain one. Highly enterprising work places like Google are offering longer, fully paid maternity leaves to draw in and retain good employees. Google’s new mother attrition rate fell by half when the company added on two additional months of paid leave, bringing the total paid maternity leave to five months. Estimates are that Obama’s new paid leave directive will cost around $250 million, but savings to taxpayers for employee retention haven’t been calculated. While affordability is often the first reason cited when arguing against providing pay during maternity leave, unpaid mothers often end up turning to public assistance, potentially costing more than what would be spent by employers keeping these parents on the payroll.

President Obama has pushed for paid maternity leave several times in the past. Last summer he went so far as to call it a “basic right,” as the Inquisitr reported. Unfortunately, the measure gets defeated, or languishes in Congress or various committees. The cost to businesses is always the sticking point. Then unseen costs born by the families and public assistance programs, however, may take a greater toll on the nation’s finances.

At a mere six weeks old, the majority of infants are not sleeping more than three hours or so at a stretch, leaving new parents exhausted and stretched thin between work and night time parenting. Studies have also shown that leave without pay often forces women back to work long before they and their babies are emotionally ready, and can severely and negatively impact a breastfeeding relationship. Many studies have shown that for women that are able, breastfeeding an infant can largely reduce many costly illnesses and, in some cases, prevent death. Returning to the work force before the mother/baby dyad is completely ready can destroy a fragile breastfeeding relationship.

While President Obama’s new directive is certainly laudable, extending the same benefit to all families would be the best course of action. It is a step in the right direction, but compared to not only other industrialized nations, but developing ones as well, it’s a small, rather tentative step. It’s rather remarkable that some of the poorest countries in the world, such as Angola and Sri Lanka, can manage to guarantee their mothers paid maternity leave, but the United States, one of the wealthiest, is unable to find the funds to do so.