The United States Is The Only Industrialized Country...

Currently, the United States is the only industrialized country without a statute requiring all employers to provide some kind of paid time off for its employees to care for a newborn or a sick loved one. Data gathered from 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) support this claim. Figure 1 shows the member countries and the length of maternity leave provided to all employees. The graph details only the averages. Maternity leave provisions can include 2 to 30 weeks paid at 100% of the employee’s salary and an additional leave that can be as long as 52 weeks at 90% of the salary, or less in other countries. The OECD calculated the average paid maternity leave in the member countries to be 17 weeks, with an average payment rate of about 78%. There are 17 countries providing above-average paid maternity leave benefits, including industrialized economies like the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, and Italy. On top of maternity leave, most OECD members also have an additional paid parental and home care leave available only to mothers. The organization summarizes this benefit in Figure 2 which shows that its average for the 38 member countries is about 37 weeks, with an average payout of 45% of the employee’s original earnings. The United States, with only FMLA for a legislation, falls way below the average for all categories with 0 weeks of guaranteed paid leave. In addition to the maternity and other paid leave for mothers,Show MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Climate Change On The United States1583 Words   |  7 PagesChange Policy Climate change looms large over our rapidly growing and continually changing world. No longer are the adverse effects of this menacing global issue a mere ominous projections, they are starting to become a very concrete reality. 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