Family Leave

In 183 countries around the world, a working mom can take time off to be with a newborn or young child — and have an income while she does so. Fathers can count on that too, in almost as many nations. On average, a couple’s combined paid leave for childbirth and child care amounts to 63 weeks. There’s one big exception — the United States, where there’s no national requirement for paid family leave. Instead there’s a hodgepodge of state and company policies that mean a family’s circumstances depend on where they live and who they work for. Overall, just 12 percent of workers have access to paid leave. Managers and professionals in large companies are most likely to be eligible, while in Silicon Valley companies scrambling to hire or hold onto scarce tech workers offer up to a year to new parents. President Donald Trump has said he wants to change that — but for mothers only.

During the campaign, Trump proposed six weeks of paid leave for mothers after his daughter, Ivanka, spoke at the Republican convention of the need to support working mothers. (After he took office, Ivanka Trump also began lobbying for a tax credit for child care that could cost $500 billion over 10 years.) Paid time off is currently required by only three states: California, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Their programs are funded by payroll taxes paid by workers but not by their employers. Eleven other states have expanded eligibility for unpaid leave beyond what a 1993 federal law requires. In January 2016, while a Democratic-sponsored national paid parental-leave bill languished in the House of Representatives, Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, granted federal workers six weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child or to care for a sick family member. In December, the Washington D.C. City Council passed the nation’s boldest plan. The law, which was sent to Congress for review, would offer most privately employed workers up to 16 paid weeks of family leave, funded by a tax on businesses. Globally, few countries have cut back on paid leave, even during the recent economic downturn; the trend instead is toward expansion, especially of paternity leave.