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I was just listening to a radio show today, where a European woman was relating that she was shocked by the short release American women get for maternity. Apparently, in her country, Slovenia, all women get a government paid maternity leave of 1 year.
I know that I have a staff member, and his wife actually is the higher earning member of the pair. She went back to work right away (within 8 weeks, with very little paid leave for either of them). I am rather aghast that he began commuting 10 miles each morning to drop off his 3 month old ( now 7 month old) daughter in day care at 7:45 near work am and picks her up at 5:15 pm.
My wife was fired about halfway through her pregnancy, and she did not return to work for five years. We received no maternity leave of any kind, but at least our son was with his mother during those early years. She now works 3/4 time, and that works pretty well. We are fortunate in that my salary is high enough to allow that.
Anyhow, enough of my anecdotes. What do you think of this issue? Who should pay for maternity leave (or paternity, if appropriate), and for how long? And why? This seems like a quality of life, parenting, policy issue of some importance.
I was just listening to a radio show today, where a European woman was relating that she was shocked by the short release American women get for maternity. Apparently, in her country, Slovenia, all women get a government paid maternity leave of 1 year.
I know that I have a staff member, and his wife actually is the higher earning member of the pair. She went back to work right away (within 8 weeks, with very little paid leave for either of them). I am rather aghast that he began commuting 10 miles each morning to drop off his 3 month old ( now 7 month old) daughter in day care at 7:45 near work am and picks her up at 5:15 pm.
My wife was fired about halfway through her pregnancy, and she did not return to work for five years. We received no maternity leave of any kind, but at least our son was with his mother during those early years. She now works 3/4 time, and that works pretty well. We are fortunate in that my salary is high enough to allow that.
Anyhow, enough of my anecdotes. What do you think of this issue? Who should pay for maternity leave (or paternity, if appropriate), and for how long? And why? This seems like a quality of life, parenting, policy issue of some importance.
Unpaid leave is perfectly fair. Or perhaps we should eliminate the exemption for children from taxes with the extra tax amounts paid used solely towards funding paid leave?
The government cannot and should not pay for maternity leaves. Women are free to save up their vacation and sick days and use short term disability insurance. Seriously, our country is B.R.O.K.E. When will people realize this??
The government cannot and should not pay for maternity leaves. Women are free to save up their vacation and sick days and use short term disability insurance. Seriously, our country is B.R.O.K.E. When will people realize this??
I hear you about offering new entitlements at this point in time. Probably a nonstarter, but we do have the largest military in the history of the world massive farm subsidies,etc. And one could argue that helping kids get a good start in life is more important than all of those.
The USA is inconsistent. Working taxpaying women of course pay their own way, they might use vacation time for their maternity time but very many women who never worked are paid very nicely to have babies. They are given free housing, free food, free babysitting services, the government pays their utility bills and provides them a cell phone -- and on top of that they get a nice government check for 5 years.
I know that I have a staff member, and his wife actually is the higher earning member of the pair. She went back to work right away (within 8 weeks, with very little paid leave for either of them). I am rather aghast that he began commuting 10 miles each morning to drop off his 3 month old ( now 7 month old) daughter in day care at 7:45 near work am and picks her up at 5:15 pm.
My wife was fired about halfway through her pregnancy, and she did not return to work for five years. We received no maternity leave of any kind, but at least our son was with his mother during those early years. She now works 3/4 time, and that works pretty well. We are fortunate in that my salary is high enough to allow that.
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I assume your employer only cares about the total dept costs, so if you can easily afford your wife staying home, and he cannot,hmmm...how generous of you not offering to increase his salary at the cost of some of yours! Instead you want non employees of your firm to pay!!
The USA is inconsistent. Working taxpaying women of course pay their own way, they might use vacation time for their maternity time but very many women who never worked are paid very nicely to have babies. They are given free housing, free food, free babysitting services, the government pays their utility bills and provides them a cell phone -- and on top of that they get a nice government check for 5 years.
Good point! The nonworking women do quite well. It is the working ones that suffer.
I assume your employer only cares about the total dept costs, so if you can easily afford your wife staying home, and he cannot,hmmm...how generous of you not offering to increase his salary at the cost of some of yours! Instead you want non employees of your firm to pay!!
I am part of a large organization, so the vote is not mine. Just presenting a scenario (and by the way, I was earning about $50k with two student loans, car payments, and a mortgage to pay at that time. I was stressed as hell, but my wife wanted to stay home and I kept my promise to her- we were not fat catting). But I assume you are saying the firm, not society should pay? Fair enough.
It is not personally very relevant to me, but an important societal issue, I think.
Good point! The nonworking women do quite well. It is the working ones that suffer.
I went back to work less than 2 weeks after having a C-section. I was new at my job and didn't have any vacation time saved up. Never in a million years would I expect someone else to pay for me to stay home for a year. Because in the end we all know the money would be coming from people who pay taxes. It just doesnt appear out of thin air.
I'd like to see women get 6 months off at 50% pay, and I'm willing to pay more in taxes. I strongly believe in it.
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of you not offering to increase his salary at the cost of some of yours! Instead you want non employees of your firm to pay!!
