“IN AMERICA there is nothing we wouldn’t do for moms—apart from one major thing,” said John Oliver, a British-born comedian, in his television show, “Last Week Tonight”, on May 10th (Mother’s Day). The “major thing” he was speaking of is paid maternity leave, which, as he pointed out, is standard in all but two of 185 countries surveyed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO): America and Papua New Guinea. In America some women who work for the federal government or larger firms can take 12 weeks’ leave unpaid after giving birth. In a handful of states new mothers get a few weeks at a low wage, funded by a payroll tax. By contrast, in Britain new mothers can take a year off, and during much of it part of their salary is replaced by the government. Sweden grants more than a year’s paid maternity leave—even to women who were not previously employed.
America would do well to take note. Many countries are proud of their maternity leave, and rightly so: the social and economic benefits of making it possible for working mothers to spend time with their newborn children are clear. But many of those countries have failed to follow the...
from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1HfCrbw
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