Jun 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day! See you at work tomorrow, unless you can afford unpaid paternity leave.

Something I'd like for Father's Day (along with a church service that doesn't observe Father's Day): paid paternity and maternity leave. Most industrialized countries have it; we don't. I wrote about this (and paid sick days) for Utne awhile back. This week, EPI's indispensable Snapshots series highlighted the issue:


I don't think I'll get either of my wishes this year. Maybe cause I'm not a father yet? I'll get moving on that--this is important stuff. The ability of parents to spend time caring for and bonding with newborns without losing their income or their job is a family value, if anything is--unless, that is, family values only matter for people who can afford to keep one parent at home full-time and/or take unpaid leave.

3 comments:

  1. bpJune 21, 2009 at 3:43 PM

    For what it's worth, Wheaton College gave me six weeks for paid leave for Ruby (although I could only take 3 weeks, because I had to get back in for Christmas Fest), so it *does* happen with a few employers in the U.S.

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  2. Steve ThorngateJune 22, 2009 at 9:38 AM

    Huh, I didn't know Wheaton did that--good for them. (And happy belated Fathers Day.)

    The problem is that statistically the less money you make, the less likely your job is to offer paid leave--and the more you're likely to need it. Businesses that want to provide paid leave voluntarily fear--whether rightly or wrongly is up for debate--that it would put them at a competitive disadvantage. Hence the need to REQUIRE businesses to do this--to put the folks who want to treat their employers well on an even competitive playing field with others.

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  3. Johnny RenoJune 29, 2009 at 10:49 PM

    Dude we're moving to Sweden and getting bizzay!

    ReplyDelete

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