Papua New Guinea. Swaziland. The United States.
These three countries are the only nations that do not mandate paid family leave to new parents.
Do you notice some nations not included on this list? Russia. China. Iran. Saudi Arabia. Four nations with horrendous human rights records, yet still surpass the United States in this regard. Russia provides 20 weeks of paid maternity leave at full pay. In China, new mothers receive 14 weeks. In the United States, that number is zero. Regardless of per capita GDP, population or governmental factors, every other developed nation has a policy that far surpasses the United States.
The United States, touted as a global superpower and a champion of social justice, is failing its parents.
But the tides appear to be shifting. This past week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced a plan to provide paid family leave for new mothers. His opponent Hillary Clinton has made paid family leave one of the central planks of her campaign, having unveiled a proposal over a year ago. For the first time in a presidential campaign, paid family leave has a loud voice on both sides of the aisle. Maybe we should tune in and listen.
So what makes paid family leave so appealing?
Paid leave has immense health benefits for new mothers. Providing maternity leave allows more time for the mother to recover from childbirth, physically and mentally. When new mothers are able to take leave, the risk of postpartum depression, anxiety and suicide decreases dramatically. For the baby, access to paid family leave is linked to increased immunizations and well-baby care. A more stable parental presence, especially when both parents can be present, is linked to better cognitive development and fewer behavioral problems in infants. The benefits also extend to the other parent. Parental leave for the other parent allows him or her to become more invested in the raising of the child, reducing the burden on the mother who is still recovering from giving birth and ultimately easing her transition back to her career.
Despite the United States’ abysmal record on the issue, some American entities have taken up the torch for paid family leave. Over the past couple years, Silicon Valley tech companies have engaged in a sort of “arms race” on paid family leave. Spotify has implemented a policy of six months of paid leave. Netflix followed suit by giving both parents unlimited paid leave during the child’s first year. Amazon, Etsy, Facebook and practically every other tech company have established similar policies.
I applaud the efforts of these companies, and I applaud the free enterprise system for encouraging these added employee benefits.
But these companies employ a very small fraction of the U.S. population, and these employees are usually in positions of wealth, where paid family leave is simply another luxury. As with most problems in our nation, it’s those on the impoverished end of the spectrum that feel the worst effects. A single mother who has to decide between bonding with her baby or putting food on the table is the most affected. Parents who have to send their sick child to school, rather than the pediatrician are the most affected. It’s tough to pull yourself up by your bootstraps while holding a baby on your hip. We as a nation should not rely entirely on private employers to fill the gap on paid leave. Rather, it should be an endeavor undertaken by our collective society.
We socialize the cost of education, ensuring that education is available for all children and young adults for the betterment of society as a whole. Better educated citizens are more valuable employees, more intelligent voters and more compassionate citizens. We socialize the cost of Social Security to lift elderly citizens, who have invested years of their lives for the betterment of the nation’s economy, out of poverty and into a comfortable retirement. Why should paid family leave be any different?
The collective United States population has a much larger stake in raising its children, as compared to the businesses that employ their parents. As a nation, we need a national paid family leave policy. Government subsidized. No exceptions. No gaps. We need it for the parents building the future of this nation and for the babies that are the embodiment of that future. Certain politicians and policy-makers preach “family values,” worried about the moral and physical well-being of children. If parenting and “family values” are such important aspects of the American way of life, would paid family leave not allow parents to take the time necessary to properly raise their children during their formative years?
As Jessica Shortfall of The Atlantic writes: “In the United States, the time for rest, bonding, and recovery often is determined not by tradition, or even by a doctor’s recommendations, but by the new mother’s employment situation.” This should not be the American Way. Our children and their mothers are much too valuable.
Nathan Campbell is a junior majoring in environmental engineering. His column runs biweekly.
