President Pushes for Paid Maternity Leave

During the White House Summit on Working Families earlier this week, President Obama said the U.S. should join the rest of the industrialized world in offering paid leave for mothers of newborns, the Associated Press reported.

Extolling the business virtues of helping workers balance family and employment demands, including providing paid time off for the birth of a child, Obama said that, if other countries can provide the benefits, so can the United States. The 1993 Family Medical Leave Act only requires that employers provide unpaid leave for medical and family reasons.

Obama also encouraged employers to have more flexible work schedules and directed federal agencies to expand flexible work arrangements where possible. He also urged Congress to pass legislation requiring employers to accommodate pregnant employees so they can continue to perform their jobs.

“Other countries know how to do this,” Obama said. “If France can figure this out, we can figure it out.” France provides some of the most far-reaching worker rights in the developed world, including a standard 35-hour work week and 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. France also has an unemployment rate that has hovered above 10% for more than two years.

“Many women can’t even get a paid day off to give birth,” Obama said. “There is only one developed country in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave, and that is us.” While calling for paid maternity leave, the President hasn’t thrown his support to legislation that would raise payroll taxes to cover the costs of paid family leave, the Associated Press reports. His aides say that he wants instead to explore the issue further. Under the proposed legislation in the U.S. Senate, workers would pay 0.2% of their salary in exchange for up to 12 weeks of leave at two-thirds their typical monthly salary.