Sustainability &…Maternity/Parental Leave
I had initially planned to make this one of my later posts, intending to build up toward what I feel are less obvious sustainability topics. However, paid maternity/paternity leave has been in the news so much lately that it felt like a good idea to move this one up for a fresher, timelier discussion. Rather famously (or infamously), the USA has no federally mandated paid maternity (for “moms”) or paternity (for “dads”) leave — the only country out of 41 studied by Pew Research not to offer any at all (7 of these countries don’t require any paternity leave). But what about the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? Doesn’t that guarantee, you know, family and medical leave? Ehh…for the most part; but there are a couple critical details:
· It’s UNPAID (so, still not truly accessible for people living paycheck-to-paycheck (56% of Americans, as of March 2021)
· It applies to all public agencies, but only to private sector companies who have had at least 50 employees for 20 weeks or more
· You, as the employee, need to have worked for the company/agency for at least 12 months
Not-So-Fun Fact: when I googled “FMLA” to confirm current leave requirements, the first result was an ad for a company that boasted they saved their clients millions by reducing “average leave by 5 days.” What a great pitch: save money by providing your employees with less than the minimum!
Because of all this, I was excited when the social spending bill (aka, The Build Back Better Act) passed the House, with the 4-week paid family/medical leave provision still intact. It’s been a bit tiring to watch this provision get cut from the bill, then added back in at the last minute, only to have the bill put on hold until a more thorough financial/economic analysis can be completed . . . and then put on hold again after trying to take it to a vote. However, I’m still disappointed (but not terribly surprised) by the backlash that Pete Buttigieg has received for taking parental leave after he and his husband adopted newborn twins. These two recent events are indicative of the American perspective on parental leave and this perspective is as unsustainable as it is sexist.
It is well established that new mothers need recovery time, as well as time to bond with their new babies. Whether the deliver is vaginal or by c-section, labor and delivery are a physically and even mentally exhausting ordeal that requires several weeks afterward to heal and recover. This recovery is made easier when a partner is also able to be home (ask your mom how she handled showering when you were a newborn), but as noted above, paternity leave is even less of a thing in this country than maternity leave and is sometimes even stigmatized. But both mothers and fathers need bonding time with their new babies, not to mention time to adjust to parenthood and their new daily routines.
Some companies only offer FMLA, rather than actual parental leave, and by law people are only eligible for FMLA once they’ve worked at a company for at least a year. Of course, some companies choose to do better than the legal minimum by allowing all employees to be eligible from Day 1 of employment or by providing some amount of pay, but many companies do not and will not unless either the market or the law requires it. This puts workers at a disadvantage as they may end up stuck in a bad work situation when they discover that they or their partner is pregnant. Sticking it out in a hostile work environment or at a job where you’re no longer growing, just because it’s nigh-impossible to find a new job where you’ll be eligible for parental leave (not to mention health insurance) is not loyalty; it’s duress. No one does their best work in that situation and neither employer nor employee gets what they want in the short-term or long-term. The way this system prevents new parents from doing their best work ends up preventing innovation and limiting entire teams, which makes this an unsustainable management strategy.
Poor parental leave policies also quietly encourage new mothers to switch to part-time or leave permanently because the systems in place do not support their ability to balance their lives. This ends up perpetuating sexist stereotypes that women are less dedicated after they have children and feeds into both conscious and unconscious biases against women and especially mothers. As a woman of child-bearing age, I have personally fretted over how and when in the job interview process to ask about benefits and leave policies without leading them to make assumptions about my family planning. It may be illegal to refuse to hire someone because they want children one day, but it is not illegal to favor one candidate over another because they “appear more dedicated” or “seem more likely to stay long-term.” This is how poor leave policies and sexist biases feed into one another.
Not all companies require an employee to be there a year before becoming eligible for parental leave, but how do you find out? If it’s not online, then asking about maternity/parental leave policies in an interview can feel a bit dicey because, as I mentioned above, it may trigger either conscious or unconscious bias. There’s always the fear that your interviewer will think you’re just trying to get paid maternity leave and that you won’t be dedicated to your work. This also puts workers at a disadvantage and gives employers an unfair advantage because it allows them to maintain poor parental leave policies.
But ultimately, a lack of effective & accessible maternity leave forces many women (and a growing number of men) to choose between career and family, with the deciding factor often being how much it costs to do so (hospital bills, loss of income while on leave — assuming leave is available). Not everyone has such a choice available to them, financially. As a result, the birth rate is falling. In order for our population to hold steady — in order for social security to be solvent — in order for there to be enough people to support older generations as they retire . . . we need people to become parents. For people to become parents, we need systems that support them. For a sustainable future, we need paid parental leave.
If you support expanding paid maternity/parental leave, please contact your senator (The Build Back Better Bill may go to a vote as early as Dec. 13!) and voice your support.
