Report card on Parenting Policies

The United States gets a “C”, ranking in the middle of 21 wealthy countries when it comes to giving fathers and mothers equal access to time off from work to care for new babies.  According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR),  when it comes to the amount of time parents are entitled to take and the provision of subsidies that make it affordable for workers to take the time to which they are entitled, the United States lags far behind most countries with comparable levels of income.  In “Parental Leave Policies in 21 Countries: Assessing Generosity and Gender Equality,” the CEPR researchers found that the U.S. and Australia were the only high-income countries to offer no paid parental leave.  

40 percent of American workers have no guaranteed family leave at all, while the 60 percent who are entitled to leave are not guaranteed any of the subsidies or compensation for lost wages provided by most other high-income countries. 

In terms of total guaranteed time off from work, the U.S. ranks 20th out of 21 high-income countries — just ahead of Switzerland, which offers only 14 weeks of protected leave. But in Switzerland, such leaves are paid at a rate of 80 percent of mothers’ income.

According to the Wall Street Journals report, some U.S. policy-makers fear that subsidized parental leave policies would damage the economy, but CEPR senior economist and study co-author John Schmitt says that international comparisons prove this is not necessarily true. “Done properly, parental leave policies aren’t a drag on the economy. For example, of the 19 rich countries with paid parental leave, nine have an unemployment rate as low or lower than the United States.”

It would be nice to see a policy change in the United States.  As a father of 2 children, I know how difficult it is to juggle family and work.  More of an emphasis needs to be directed toward building strong families.  Read our “statistics” section on the www.dadsworld.com home page and you will see how bad the problems are.  We need involved parents, and many families need help with their income while they are in those early stages. 

Tags: CEPR, dad, dadsworld, mom, parenting leave, united states, wall street journal