U.S. Leave Policy for New Parents Ranks Last Among 21 Rich Nations, Report Says
(ZT)

The United States ranks 20th out of 21 high-income countries in the length of parental leave guaranteed to workers and last in providing paid leave, according to a study released Aug. 30 by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

"The United States has the least generous parental leave policies among the 21 high-income countries we studied," the Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank said in its report, "Parental Leave Policies in 21 Countries: Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality."

"We pay a high price for our poor policy, though, because parental leaves improve the health and well-being of children and their parents and paid leaves provide families with crucial economic support at such an important time," said Janet Gornick, a political science and sociology professor at City University of New York who co-authored the report.

Only Switzerland guarantees parents less time off from work than the United States--14 weeks versus 24 weeks--but 11 of those 14 weeks are paid, CEPR said.

The United States and Australia are the only countries that do not guarantee mothers paid time off after childbirth, but Australia gives new parents a $3,000 "baby bonus," offsetting some of the hardship of unpaid leave, it said.

The study focused on the combined effects of two aspects of parental leave policies in the 21 nations: the amount of guaranteed time off work with job protection and the level of support provided to both the father and mother.

A country's leave policy should include both a sufficient amount of total paid time off for couples and nontransferable paid leave allocations to each parent, the report's authors said.

Without such a parental leave policy, "women bear a disproportionate burden of child care responsibilities and pay both a short- and long-term penalty in the labor market," the report said. Traditional gender roles and earnings disparities work together to "deprive men of the opportunity to participate actively in providing infant and child care," it said.

"Poorly designed parental leave policies can actually reinforce these tendencies toward gender inequality," it said.


France, Spain, Sweden Rank High


France and Spain have the most generous parental leave policies, guaranteeing more than 300 weeks of both paid and unpaid time off, or about six years, the study found.

In most countries, the length of parental leave ranges from three months to one year.

The total amount of paid parental leave available jointly to couples ranges from 11 weeks in Switzerland to 47 weeks in Sweden, with France requiring 29 weeks of paid parental leave, and Spain, 27 weeks.

Next to Sweden, the most generous paid leave is provided by Norway (44 weeks), followed by Germany (42 weeks).

The Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Norway along with Finland, France, and Greece were the only countries identified by CEPR as following "best practices" for parental leave. Those practices include generous paid parental leave, nontransferable quotas of leave for each parent, universal coverage, scheduling flexibility, and financing systems that pool risk among many employers.

The lack of paid leave or low levels of paid leave "works against mothers because fathers, who typically earn more than mothers, are unlikely to take unpaid or poorly paid leave to give care to infants." the report said.


'Daddy Days' Limited in Most Countries


Traditional gender roles and the typically lower earnings levels of mothers lead the large majority of parents to choose to have the mother, not the father, stay at home to give care, it said.

"The contrast between mothers' maximum entitlements and fathers' minimum entitlements is stark," the study found.

A handful of countries offer fathers "use it or lose it" job-protected leave--both paid and unpaid leave--in excess of one year--Spain, France, Sweden, and Norway. The vast majority of countries offer substantially less, and four countries offer fathers none at all--Australia, Canada, Japan, and Switzerland.

The United States guarantees fathers 12 weeks of parental leave, but the lack of paid leave limits usage, the report said.

"Experience suggests that providing paid parental leave can go some distance toward encouraging fathers to take leave," it said.

In Portugal, for example, in 2000, when parental leave was unpaid, fewer than 150 men took parental leave; three years later, after Portuguese law was changed to give fathers two weeks of paid family leave, or "daddy days," 27,000 men took it.

Paid "use it or lose it" leave for fathers "is remarkably limited," with 10 nations providing from two days to six weeks and nine countries offering none. France and Sweden give the most nontransferable paid "daddy days," seven weeks.


U.S. Employers Fail to 'Close Gap.'


In the United States, the Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to recent parents, but because of exemptions, only about 60 percent of workers are eligible, CEPR said.

The law exempts establishments with fewer than 50 employees, and requires workers at larger establishments to have at least one year of tenure with their current employer and to have worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months.

A handful of states, including California and New Jersey, also provide limited amounts of paid parental leave.

Although businesses are allowed to provide more generous parental leave than the federal government or states require, few do so, according to the report. "Private employers do not appear to be narrowing the statutory gap in parental leave entitlement between the United States and the rest of the high-income countries analyzed here," it said.

Only about one-fourth of U.S. employers offer fully paid "maternity-related leave" of any length, and one-fifth do not offer maternity-related leave, either paid or unpaid, CEPR said.