Stop penalizing new parents. Stop making them feel guilty for not being back at work in a matter of weeks. Stop adding to the most stressful time in their lives by adding to their financial burden. I am a mom of 3 lovely children, and the founder and CEO of two businesses centered around supporting new parents. I’ve felt the pain of going back to work too soon. I’ve felt the stress on my new family because our country doesn’t support new parents. I’ve seen thousands of parents go through the same struggle. It’s time to make a change.
We now have many years of real data which says that paid leave is not only good for families, but also for businesses. Moms and dads and people who love them need to make this known and demand that government make a change to help all new parents. Please help spread the word.
It takes a village to support a child. It takes a nation to support their parents.
The United States is the most economically powerful country on the planet. We are a model of freedom and innovation for the world. And yet, the U.S. is the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t have a system to provide paid parental leave for its workers.
There is nothing more joyful, life altering, or stressful than the birth of a new child. New parents desperately need time to recover, bond with children, and sleep before they are forced to return to work or, if they are lucky enough to have a choice, quit their job to care for their baby. Forcing an early decision, for women especially, will have serious implications for their lifelong earning potential. Paid leave is not only the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.
Here’s why: studies overwhelmingly show the economic and societal benefits of paid leave.
With paid leave, more people take time off, particularly low-income parents who might have dropped out of the work force after the birth of a child. Instead, paid leave raises the likelihood that mothers will return to employment, and will work 15 to 20 percent more hours on average, and earn 5 percent higher wages.
But under current federal law, less than half of U.S. workers who have a baby are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, and a mere 11 percent of American workers have access to paid leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The result is that the percentage of women in the U.S. labor force lags behind countries with more supportive leave policies — studies show a direct correlation. This is a serious problem if we want to remain competitive on a global scale.
We now have years of actual data about the effect paid leave programs have on businesses and families and the news is good. California passed the nation’s first-ever comprehensive paid family leave program in 2002. Businesses protested, fearing it would burden employers. But less than a decade later, a 2011 study found nearly 90% of businesses said paid family leave had a neutral or positive effect on productivity, profitability, turnover and morale. Nearly 87% say it did not increase costs. Nearly 9% said the program generated cost savings by reducing employee turnover.
Increasingly, companies like Facebook, Google, Netflix, Nestle and Ernst & Young are choosing to provide generous paid leave to new parents. They know it’s not only good for their employees’ lives, but it’s also good for their bottom line.
Most of these companies offer paid leave to both new moms and dads. This is important both because it recognizes the reality of modern parenthood — both mom and dad are intimately involved — and also because it normalizes gender in the workplace. If both mothers and fathers are entitled to and take paid leave, any career or company disruption will become like any other workplace issue, rather than one that only affects women’s careers.
The overwhelming majority of new parents still do not have paid leave. A tiny fraction of the workforce become parents each year (less than 3.5%). The government has a responsibility to step in to help the many support the few during this critical period of a new family’s life. We can change the system and support all companies, including small and low-wage worker businesses, to make paid leave our country’s standard of care.
What can you do: Please do three things: (1) like this page, (2) use social media to spread the word #paidleave (What choices were you forced to make to balance career and family?), (3) support people who are working on this issue. See a (growing!) list here of companies, journalists, and legislators who are supporting and/or educating about this important issue. Please feel free to add to the list (it’s an editable Google Doc). Our families and our economy depend on it.
Ann Crady Weiss is the co-founder and CEO of Hatch Baby, a smart parenting device company.
