Paid Parental Leave — are we getting closer?
Via Momocrats:
Only five countries in the world offer no form of legally protected paid maternity leave to women workers: Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho, Liberia, and the United States.
………
[June 1st, 2009] the U.S. House finally passed a bill, sponsored by New York Congresswoman, and friend of this blog Carolyn Maloney, that would grant four weeks of paid parental leave to all Federal government employees after the birth or adoption of a child. Though the bill only applies to government workers, and would not affect private sector employees, for the United States, considering our record thus far on parental leave, it would be a big step forward.
The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act will now move to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. But strong opposition from Senate Republicans could delay or weaken the bill. If you care about improving working parents’ access to reasonable parental leave, please contact your Senators and let them know that you would prefer the United States have just this one less thing in common with Liberia and Swaziland.
