| Topic: |
Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"james g. keegan jr." |
| Date: |
27 Jul 2005 07:42:51 PM |
| Object: |
US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave
By Jeff Geissler
The Associated Press
Tuesday 26 July 2005
In Santa Fe, Linda Strauss McIlroy, a first-time mother, is trying to
get used to the thought of soon putting her two-month-old boy in day care
so she can get back to work.
"It's hard for me to imagine leaving him," she says. "Just not being
with him all day, leaving him with a virtual stranger. And then that's it
till, you know, I retire. It's kind of crazy to think about it."
Across the border in Vancouver, Canada, Suzanne Dobson is back at
work after 14 months of paid maternity leave.
"It was great," she says. "I was still making pretty good money for
being at home."
Across the ocean, in Sweden, Magnus Larsson is looking forward to
splitting 16 months of parental leave at 80% pay with his girlfriend.
They are expecting their first baby in a week.
With little public debate, the United States has chosen a radically
different approach to maternity leave than the rest of the developed
world. The United States and Australia are the only industrialized
countries that don't provide paid leave for new mothers nationally,
though there are exceptions in some U.S. states.
Australian mothers have it better, however, with one year of job-
protected leave. The U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act provides for 12
weeks of job-protected leave, but it only covers those who work for
larger companies.
To put it another way, out of 168 nations in a Harvard University
study last year, 163 had some form of paid maternity leave, leaving the
United States in the company of Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.
How did it end up this way?
"To me it's a puzzle. I can give you all the arguments that have been
used, but that still doesn't really solve the puzzle," says Jeanne
Brooks-Gunn, a professor of child development and education at Columbia
University.
According to Brooks-Gunn, some countries, like France, expanded
maternity leave after World War II to fight falling fertility and
encourage childbearing. That argument has been missing in the United
States, where immigration has ensured population growth.
Jane Waldfogel, also a professor at Columbia, says another part of
the puzzle is that the European and American feminist movements had
differing goals.
In Europe, feminists emphasized special treatment for mothers,
including maternity leave and child care.
"The American feminist movement didn't want to hear anything about
mothers," Waldfogel says. "They wanted equal rights for women and didn't
emphasize special treatment."
The U.S. feminist movement has moved away from this viewpoint, but
that hasn't led to a change in maternity rules. One reason is that U.S.
women are used to having about three months off and consider it the norm,
Waldfogel says.
For many, of course, that norm feels alien. To Strauss McIlroy in
Santa Fe, those three months certainly feel inadequate.
"I thought, being kind of a career woman, that I might be one of
those who'd be kind of looking forward to going back, that I'd be all
babied out," she says. "But I'm really very apprehensive about it."
In Canada, Dobson's feelings about her son, Gavin, and the country's
maternity leave rules are a better fit.
"I don't think I would have been ready to hand him over to anyone at
six months," Dobson says. "At 12 months, he's a little person, and he can
kind of tell you what he wants and doesn't want."
There have been several attempts at introducing paid maternity leave
in the United States. The Clinton administration wanted to allow states
to use unemployment funds for maternity leaves, but that was shot down by
the Bush administration after opposition from business groups concerned
with increased contribution to state unemployment funds.
A bill introduced in the House by Reps. Pete Stark and George Miller,
both D-Calif., would establish a fund that would replace 55% of pay for
workers on FMLA leave. Contributions to the fund would come from
employers.
"There are a couple of central problems when we look at paid leave
legislation. The first is: who's paying for it?" asks Michael Eastman,
director of labor policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
U.S. employers already pay $21 billion a year in direct costs related
to the FMLA, Eastman says, in addition to indirect costs like additional
overtime for those who fill in for workers on leave.
Waldfogel agrees that it's too much to ask employers to shoulder the
cost of introducing paid maternity leave.
"As long as what we have in mind ... is asking employers to both hold
the job open and pay the salary, we're going to get tremendous resistance
from employers," she says.
California went a different route, and last year introduced family
leave with around 50% pay for six weeks, paid from a fund that employees,
not employers, pay into.
"Once they did that, there were no longer any objections from
employers," Waldfogel says.
Five states - California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Rhode
Island - and Puerto Rico require employers to have temporary disability
programs, which pay benefits if the pregnancy is defined as a disability
by a doctor. A few others have infant care programs that pay subsidies to
low-income families for up to two years.
In New York City, Kelsey Goss, a public-school teacher, is trying to
build her tutoring business so she and her husband can stay afloat
financially when she goes on unpaid maternity leave in October.
"When I tell people that as a teacher I get zero paid maternity
leave, they're stunned," she says. "In a job like that, that's about
taking care of kids, those are the benefits?"
How does she think her benefits compare with Europe?
"I don't even want to know," she says.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/072705WB.shtml
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
27 Jul 2005 08:21:01 PM |
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James quoted Associated Press:
A bill introduced in the House by Reps. >Pete Stark and George Miller,
both D-Calif., would establish a fund that >would replace 55% of pay for
workers on FMLA leave. Contributions to >the fund would come from employers.
Want to see even more "offshoring?" Just drive up the cost of
hiring half of American workers by requiring their employers to pay
them 55% of their pay - for no work!
Liberals need to grow up.
Browse this gun show for FREE! Shop the
http://stores.ebay.com/INTERNET-GUN-SHOW
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| User: "Ray Fischer" |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
27 Jul 2005 09:55:18 PM |
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<> wrote:
James quoted Associated Press:
A bill introduced in the House by Reps. >Pete Stark and George Miller,
both D-Calif., would establish a fund that >would replace 55% of pay for
workers on FMLA leave. Contributions to >the fund would come from employers.
Want to see even more "offshoring?" Just drive up the cost of
hiring half of American workers by requiring their employers to pay
them 55% of their pay - for no work!
Health care benefits add hundreds of dollars to the cost of every car
made in Detroit. It's an expense that car makers in Canada don't have
to pay.
But the neocon morons believe all the propaganda from their RNC
masters. They actually think that cutting wages for workers creates
jobs even as executives inflate their own salaries with the savings.
--
Ray Fischer
rfischer@sonic.net
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| User: "Bert Hyman" |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
27 Jul 2005 10:06:59 PM |
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In news:dc9hem$7ek$1@bolt.sonic.net (Ray Fischer)
wrote:
Health care benefits add hundreds of dollars to the cost of every car
made in Detroit. It's an expense that car makers in Canada don't have
to pay.
They don't pay for it?
Gosh!
It must come from the health care fairies, eh?
--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN bert@iphouse.com
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| User: "Ray Fischer" |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
28 Jul 2005 12:11:00 AM |
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Bert Hyman <bert@iphouse.com> wrote:
rfischer@bolt.sonic.net (Ray Fischer)
Health care benefits add hundreds of dollars to the cost of every car
made in Detroit. It's an expense that car makers in Canada don't have
to pay.
They don't pay for it?
No.
Gosh!
It must come from the health care fairies, eh?
You're not very smart, are you?
--
Ray Fischer
rfischer@sonic.net
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| User: "Adam H." |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
27 Jul 2005 10:14:49 PM |
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On 28 Jul 2005 03:06:59 GMT, Bert Hyman <bert@iphouse.com> wrote:
In news:dc9hem$7ek$1@bolt.sonic.net (Ray Fischer)
wrote:
Health care benefits add hundreds of dollars to the cost of every car
made in Detroit. It's an expense that car makers in Canada don't have
to pay.
They don't pay for it?
Gosh!
It must come from the health care fairies, eh?
The car makers don't bear that cost, no.
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| User: "Adam H." |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
27 Jul 2005 10:14:26 PM |
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On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 02:55:18 GMT, (Ray
Fischer) wrote:
editor@netpath.net <editor@netpath.net> wrote:
James quoted Associated Press:
A bill introduced in the House by Reps. >Pete Stark and George Miller,
both D-Calif., would establish a fund that >would replace 55% of pay for
workers on FMLA leave. Contributions to >the fund would come from employers.
Want to see even more "offshoring?" Just drive up the cost of
hiring half of American workers by requiring their employers to pay
them 55% of their pay - for no work!
Health care benefits add hundreds of dollars to the cost of every car
made in Detroit. It's an expense that car makers in Canada don't have
to pay.
Yes...regardless of what has been said, that was the principal reason
that Toyota built that new plant in Ontario, even though several
states offered tax incentives easily twice the size of what Toyota
will get in Canada.
But the neocon morons believe all the propaganda from their RNC
masters. They actually think that cutting wages for workers creates
jobs even as executives inflate their own salaries with the savings.
But, but, but...cutting wages means there's MORE money to pay more
workers, right?
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| User: "Ray Fischer" |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
28 Jul 2005 12:14:15 AM |
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Adam H. <adam@mailinator.com> wrote:
rfischer@bolt.sonic.net (Ray Fischer) wrote:
But the neocon morons believe all the propaganda from their RNC
masters. They actually think that cutting wages for workers creates
jobs even as executives inflate their own salaries with the savings.
But, but, but...cutting wages means there's MORE money to pay more
workers, right?
It means that Intel can afford to invest $200,000,000 in Chinese
companies so they can better compete against US workers.
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20050613corp.htm
--
Ray Fischer
rfischer@sonic.net
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| User: "webgiant" |
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| Title: Re: US Stands Apart from Other Nations on Maternity Leave |
02 Aug 2005 04:33:22 AM |
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["Followup-To:" header set to talk.abortion.]
On 2005-07-28, <> wrote:
James quoted Associated Press:
A bill introduced in the House by Reps. Pete Stark and George
Miller, both D-Calif., would establish a fund that would replace
55% of pay for workers on FMLA leave. Contributions to the fund
would come from employers.
Want to see even more "offshoring?" Just drive up the cost of
hiring half of American workers by requiring their employers to pay
them 55% of their pay - for no work!
Want to help cut abortion rates? Then pass laws which encourage
*employed women* to give birth.
Liberals need to grow up.
Conservatives need to accept the consequences of their policies
and either agree that unfettered capitalism encourages abortion,
or do something about it.
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