UAW’s Two Weeks Paid Parental Leave Is a Starting Point for Labor

The United Auto Workers union’s tentative agreements with Detroit’s three automakers include a new benefit: two weeks of paid parental leave for full-time employees. That's almost nothing compared to what workers in other rich nations receive. But it's significant in other ways.

The US has no nationally mandated paid time off for new parents, and only about a quarter of American private-sector workers have access to the benefit. Two weeks is far less than what’s available in Europe and Asia, where workers by law can get six months or even more than a year. It also pales in comparison to the leave for salaried workers at General Motors Co., which can be as much as 12 weeks. It’s nevertheless a step up for the roughly 146,000 UAW members covered by the agreements and their families.