U.S. Gets Failing Grade on Paid Parental Leave

U.S. Gets Failing Grade on Paid Parental Leave 2016 WILL BRING BETTER MATERNITY AND PATERNITY BENEFITS. From adoption to surrogacy to traditional childbirth, one of the hottest topics across America is improving benefits for new parents. With national policies on Paid Family Leave (PFL) trailing embarrassingly behind the rest of the world, forward-thinking companies are realizing that offering paid leave pays off. THE U.S. LAGS FAR BEHIND ON PARENTAL LEAVE Despite leading the way on many social issues, organizations in the United States are seriously lagging behind on providing paid parental leave benefits to their workers. In fact, we're 1 of only 4 countries total to offer NO federally mandated AA paid parental leave to anyone. The others are Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. Relying on private employers to provide this benefit, our maternity leave national average for new mothers pales in comparison to many other developed countries. PAID MATERNITY LEAVE, BY NATION ICELAND KOREA ITALY MEXICO HUNGARY SWEDEN IRELAND POLAND PORTUGAL AUSTRALIA CZECH REPUBLIC UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES BULGARIA 60 40 20 WEEKS 20 40 60 The U.S. is the ONLY industrialized country to offer O mandatory paid leave weeks for new mothers. Yet our maternity efforts are still miles ahead of the paternity benefits we offer new fathers. At the state level, it gets even worse. Only 4 U.S. states provide publicly funded paid parental leave. MASSACHUSETTS 8 weeks of U.S. fathers who take parental 6 weeks CALIFORNIA 70% leave average just 10 days or less. NEW JERSEY 6 weeks RHODE ISLAND 4 weeks of full-time male workers say job Washington, D.C's generous policy: 16 weeks 48% demands either sometimes or often interfere with their family life. TIME TO STEP UP With no federally mandated family leave policy, the U.S. instead relies on companies to offer reduced pay at a percentage of the employee's annual salary. It seems that no one wants to cover the cost. Yet the Department of Labor notes that But how much is it really costing? the number of private-sector workers who actually have employer-supplied access to paid family leave is When offering paid parental leave, the perceived cost only 12%. can seem extensive. Payment for a temporary worker Potential decrease in team-wide productivity Covering full absentee benefits for the duration of the leave Yet, a Center for Economic and Policy Research study of California business owners revealed the vast majority reported either positive or no negative effects at all, regardless of company size. EMPLOYER ASSESSMENT OF PAID FAMILY LEAVE, BY COMPANY SIZE "No noticeable effect" or "positive effect" on: 88.8% <50 Employees 86.6% 1 50-90 Employees PRODUCTIVITY 71.2% I 100+ Employees 88.5% I All Employer Respondents 91.1% 91.2% PROFITABILITY/ PERFORMANCE 77.6% Believe it or not, offering paid parental leave actually does more good than harm for employee retention and the 91% 92.2% 98.6% TURNOVER 96.6% 92.8% bottom line. 98.9% 95.6% MORALE 91.5% 98.6% CST TO REPLACE AN EMPLOYE E, BY EXPERTISE LEVEL ~400% annual salary -30-50% ~150% annual salary annual salary Entry-Level Mid-Level High-Level/ Highly Specialize SURMOUNTING THE STIGMA As the American family changes, so does our need for these benefits. It starts at the individual and enterprise level, changing how we perceive and respond to the need. PFL-related concerns: Lost professional Maintaining career Loss of viable workplace Disqualification of skills and trends candidacy over time outside parental skills (volunteerism, PTA, pro bono projects, etc.) peer contact Taking matters into its own hands, the technology industry is leading the charge to implement better paid HIGH-PAID FAMILY LEAVE RATES AMONG TECH COMPANIES 60 parental leave in the U.S. 52 40 More robust family-oriented benefits 26 go a long way toward improving 20 20 18 18 employee attraction, retention, and 20 16 morale-proving that today's labor investments will pay off for generations to come. Netflix Adobe Amazon Microsoft Google Apple Facebook "For the good of our families and the strength of our economy, we need to lead on leave." U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR THOMAS E. PEREZ SOURCES: "10 Things You Need to Know About Maternity Leave in the US," 2015, TechRepublic "DOL Factsheet: Paid Family and Medical Leave," 2015, United States Department of Labor "Leaves that Pay," 2011, Eileen Appelbaum and Ruth Milkman "Key Characteristics of Parental Leave Systems," 2015, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Family Database "DOL Policy Brief: Paternity Leave: Why Parental Leave For Fathers Is So Important For Working Families," 2015, United States Department of Labor "The Real Cost of Paid Parental Leave for Business," 2016, FastCompany "These Are the Companies With the Best Parental Leave Policies," 2015, Money "US Is Only Industrialized Nation Without Paid Maternity Leave," 2015, ABC "Why the U.S. Will Finally Do Something About Paid Parental Leave This Year," 2016, FastCompany Jobvite COLUMN FIVE NETHERLANDS SPAIN GERMANY ISRAEL EINLAND DENMARK JAPAN FRANCE GREECE CANADA SWITZERLAND NEW ZEALAND WEEKS