United States: leave policy, failure and potential

2019 ◽  
pp. 147-164
Author(s):  
Gayle Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
State Level ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Paid Leave ◽  
Unpaid Leave ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

The United States is far behind other countries when it comes to paid leave for parents. While there have been efforts since the 1980s to introduce legislation, the current federal policy (Family and Medical Leave Act or FMLA) only offers 12 weeks of unpaid leave and only 59% of American workers are eligible for this leave; even among working adults who are eligible for FMLA, less than two-fifths can afford to take this unpaid leave. At the state level, California was a trailblazer in passing paid Family Leave in 2002, and New Jersey, Rhode Island and New York have followed suit. Recently, several companies have made news with their announcements about introducing and expanding paid Parental Leave. While a majority of Americans supports some kind of paid leave policy, the most recent legislation introduced at the federal level has nevertheless failed to pass. Some reasons include low relative importance, disagreement in policy implementation, concern over the impact on businesses, and an American value system that emphasizes individualism over welfare programs.

scholarly journals The Use of Data in the Making and Monitoring of Parental Leave in Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-73
Author(s):  
Marian Baird
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Use Of Data ◽  
Unpaid Leave ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Significant Change ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
The Way

This paper considers the availability and use of data in parental leave policy making and monitoring in Australia. The terminology of parental leave is discussed and its use in Australia is explained as referring to paid and unpaid leave for mothers, fathers and partners at the time of birth or adoption of a child and usually covering the first 12–24 months after the birth or adoption. It includes entitlements in labour law legislation, the federal government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme and separate employer provisions. The paper outlines the range of data sources and how they were used to construct a case in favour of the introduction of the Paid Parental Leave scheme in 2010 and to monitor its implementation, as well provision of paid parental leave through enterprise bargaining and company policies. The paper also explains how data was used in a deliberately constructed way to defend the Paid Parental Leave scheme when it was under threat of significant change. In conclusion the paper draws attention to the way terminology is shifting, to how data illuminates the gendered use of parental leave in Australia and argues for the need for refreshed data on parental leave availability, access and use in Australia.

scholarly journals The Role of Collective Bargaining in Paid Parental Leave Policy in New Zealand?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Blumenfeld ◽  
Donatella Cavagnoli
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Paid Leave ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Industrialised Countries

Labour MP Sue Moroney’s Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months' Paid Leave) Amendment Bill to extend paid parental leave (PPL) to 26 weeks by 2014 was drawn from the Member's ballot in April and made it past its first reading in July, with all parties except National and Act indicating their support. One of the objectives of this bill, according to its sponsor, is to bring New Zealand in line with the rest of the industrialised world. In many industrialised countries, however, in the absence of any statutory entitlement, collective bargaining has played a crucial role both in determining PPL policies and in shaping legislative initiatives (Gregory and Milner 2009; Baird and Murray 2012). This article considers the role of collective bargaining in PPL policy in New Zealand.

The Value of Postponing Pregnancy: California’s Paid Family Leave and the Timing of Pregnancies

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1467-1499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirlee Lichtman-Sadot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
The United States ◽  
Family Status ◽  
Hispanic Origin ◽  
Monetary Benefit ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Lower Education ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Conditioning a monetary benefit on individuals’ family status can create distortions, even in individuals’ seemingly personal decisions, such as the birth of a child. Birth timing and its response to various policies has been studied by economists in several papers. However, pregnancy timing – i.e. the timing of conception – and its response to policy announcements has not been examined. This paper makes use of a 21-month lag between announcing California’s introduction of the first paid parental leave program in the United States and its scheduled implementation to evaluate whether women timed their pregnancies in order to be eligible for the expected benefit. Using natality data, documenting all births in the United States, a difference-in-differences approach compares California births to births in states outside of California before the program’s introduction and in 2004, the year California introduced paid parental leave. The results show that the distribution of California births in 2004 significantly shifted from the first half of the year to the second half of the year, immediately after the program’s implementation. While the effect is present for all population segments of new mothers, it is largest for disadvantaged mothers – with lower education levels, of Hispanic origin, younger, and not married. These results shed light on the population segments most affected by the introduction of paid parental leave and on the equitable nature of paid parental leave policies.

Colonial and Revolutionary United States

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Littlefield
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
African American ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
American Population ◽  
American Institution ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Low Country

This article reviews scholarship on the history and historiography of slavery in colonial and revolutionary United States. Slavery was a southern American institution associated primarily with cotton and a divinely ordained labour force of blacks. Southerners in the Chesapeake might realize that slaves once produced tobacco, and in low-country South Carolina and Georgia that they once grew rice, and in southern Louisiana that they once raised sugar cane, but most people, when they thought about slavery at all, thought about the growing of cotton and reckoned that an African workforce required no explanation. Few knew that at one time slavery lived in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, that it had been vibrant in New York and Pennsylvania, and that slaves still worked in New Jersey in 1860. Even in the South, where the presence of a significant African-American population made the heritage of slavery undeniable and people generally recognized the meaning of that fact, most understood neither slavery's age nor its origins.

Xiphinema rivesi. [Distribution map].

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
North America ◽  
South America ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Prince Edward Island ◽  
Distribution Map ◽  
New Distribution

Abstract A new distribution map is provided for Xiphinema rivesi Dalmasso. Enoplea: Dorylaimida: Longidoridae. Hosts: polyphagous. Information is given on the geographical distribution in Africa (Egypt), Asia (Iran, Pakistan), Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Canary Islands), North America (Canada, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Guadeloupe, United States, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia), Oceania (Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Samoa, Tonga), South America (Argentina, Chile, Peru).

Paid parental leave and fathers’ involvement: capturing fathers’ gender beliefs and fathering perceptions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa A. Streckenbach ◽  
Laura Castiglioni ◽  
Pia S. Schober
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Paid Leave ◽  
Indirect Care ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Gender Traditionalism

This study examines how multidimensional gender and fathering beliefs of fathers may explain their relative involvement in childcare after considering paid leave uptake. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from one German state, which allow us to distinguish three belief dimensions: (1) gender traditionalism and essentialism, (2) fathering attitudes, and (3) fathering self-concepts and self-efficacy. By means of multiple linear regression models we investigate how the different dimensions of gender and fatherhood beliefs relate to fathers’ relative involvement in basic and indirect childcare tasks. Our results show that gender (essentialist) ideologies and fatherhood attitudes were strongly associated with fathers’ relative involvement in both childcare domains. The higher fathers perceived self-efficacy in fathering, the more involved they were in basic but not indirect care. All belief dimensions mediated the positive association of fathers’ uptake of paid leave with their involvement in basic childcare.

United States paid parental leave and infant mortality

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 145-153
Author(s):  
Brandy Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Replacement Policy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
College Educated

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings on the effects of existing paid parental leave programs on infant mortality rates (IMR) in the USA as an attempt to aid in efforts for the development of a national paid parental leave policy. Design/methodology/approach Three articles were reviewed to analyze findings on the effects of existing parental leave programs on IMR in the USA. Findings The results from the three studies analyzed indicate that unpaid parental leave and parental leave with partial wage replacement can reduce IMR in households with college educated, working mothers. Research limitations/implications This review is limited due to only having three studies available to synthesize that pertained to the USA. Implications for future research are to examine the effects of fully paid parental leave programs offered by individual organizations on IMR in the USA. Social implications Providing a needs-based income replacement policy to mothers who wish to take parental leave after the birth of a child may be the best policy to decrease IMR for infants from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Originality/value The findings in this review will aid in the ongoing efforts to develop a national paid parental leave policy in the USA.

scholarly journals Employee Experiences with a Newly Adopted Paid Parental Leave Policy: Equity Considerations for Policy Implementation

Health Equity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn M. Richardson ◽  
Anna Steeves-Reece ◽  
Allea Martin ◽  
David A. Hurtado ◽  
Lisset M. Dumet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

scholarly journals Paid Parental Leave Laws in the United States: Does Short-Duration Leave Affect Women's Labor-Force Attachment?

2016 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 242-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya S. Byker
Keyword(s):  
Labor Force ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
The United States ◽  
Program Participation ◽  
Women's Labor ◽  
Maternal Labor Supply ◽  
Paid Leave ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Labor Force Attachment

I analyze the effects of short-duration paid parental leave on maternal labor supply. Using monthly longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, my event-study research design estimates impacts of paid leave laws in California and New Jersey on women's labor-force outcomes around childbirth. I find that paid leave laws are associated with a substantial increase in labor-force attachment in the months directly around birth. While US-style short-duration leave is unlikely to change prolonged exits from the labor force, my findings imply that paid leave laws induce some women stay more attached to jobs, particularly low-skill women.

scholarly journals Paid parental leave policy: a response to Maureen Baker

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Callister ◽  
Judith Galtry
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Leave Policy ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

In the August 2011 issue of Policy Quarterly, Maureen Baker sets out to outline ‘Key issues in parental leave policy’. One aim of the article was to examine ‘some of the continuing debates about paid parental leave’. However, we argue that the article fails to advance debates about paid parental leave in New Zealand, because: 1) it does not adequately engage with recent national and international literature; 2) it lacks new empirical evidence; 3) its theoretical basis is confused; and 4) no clear, new policy directions are promoted.  

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