Parental Leave Summaries
1. Summary
The article mainly discussed the current poor coverage of paid parental leave in the US and the reason. Though many big cities have begun to pay for parental leave recently, most employees in the US were still far from the welfare which had been distributed in nearly all developed countries for a long time. Actually, the municipal tradition of rejecting federal solutions while facing benefit issues should be responsible for the prolonged struggle in promoting paid parental leave. It is the tradition that gives employers a lot of freedom not to give money when their employees are in pregnancy. However, the tradition has been weakened gradually due to the long-lasting urge from females and the surprisingly increasing awareness from males. To be specific, the awareness from males plays an important role due to their relatively superior overall position in companies. Additionally, the result of tentative paid parental leave is far better than people expected. This year would make a difference. (Jin Hao)
Reference:
Kimmel, M. (2016). Why The U.S. will finally do something about paid parental leave this year. Fastcompany. Retrieved September 07, 2016, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3055288/the-future-of-work/why-paid-parental-leave-will-expand-in-2016
2. Summary
The article expressed the strong will and hope that many parents have for improving parental leave. Currently, the US is almost the only developed country showing ignorance to moms’ pledge, which is heartbroken. Only one eighth of employees are able to enjoy parental leave, and the overall quality of this kind of welfare is really low, compared with other developed countries. Three months’ paid parental leave seems long enough for most employees in the US, but even those with access to paid welfare meet problems when sending their babies to daycare. In this article, several moms reported that their babies left the world due to the lack of ensured parental leave. Probably their babies were too young to be totally cared by others such as daycare institutes in the daytime. Additionally, there are thousands of infants dying in the US per year, which attracts many parents’ attention and motivates them to start a petition finally. (Jin Hao)
Reference:
May, A. (2016). Moms whose infants died in day care petition for 6 months parental leave. USA Today. Retrieved September 15, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/08/30/moms-whose-infants-died-day-care-petition-6-months-parental-leave/89582828/
3. Summary
The article presented one company’s novel trial of improving the paid parental leave. Other than simply protracting the length of former paid parental leave, the company gave equal rights to dads or any other family members regardless of age in need of caring infants. The change shows that welfare in this company would not be treated specially for gender or age, so women or old people wouldn’t be regarded as employees lacking enthusiasm if more companies choose to do that. In other words, discrimination against gender and age is being decreased. However, the new trial didn’t stop on the border of parental leave. It even provided the paid leave for various diseases that happened to an employee’s family member. The new trial deserves further spreading. (Jin Hao)
Reference:
McGregor, J. (2016). This new paid leave policy may be the smartest perk for families yet. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 15, 2016, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-deloitte-paid-leave-policy-20160913-story.html
4. Summary
Susan Wojcicki was the first female employee of Google who received maternity leave. She went for maternity leave for the fifth time in her career since Google has started to join along with 5000 other women who will receive benefits for maternity leave. Google provides 18 weeks of paid maternity leave and Ms. Wojcicki believes that it is beneficial for the company and its employees, but also regrets that maternity leave is rare in the US, which lacks in providing benefits for pregnant women.
Ms. Wojcicki refers to the survey carried out by International Labor Organization of UN, which released a report mentioning that the US is the only one among the developed countries who don’t provide government-mandated maternity leave. Ignoring the developed criteria, US is among only two countries out of 185 surveyed countries to not provide this benefit. She also mentioned that The Family and Medical Act of 1993 is a step in the right direction but is still unable to provide benefit to half of concerned women in the US.
The effect of the absence of this benefit can be severe, like postpartum depression, less bonding with child, and lack of breastfeeding; these can cause infant illness, which results in treatment costs of billions of dollars yearly. The Center of Economic Policy and Research carried out a survey after California state established paid medical leave. The survey mentioned that 91% of employers reported boosted profits or had little effect. Also when Google increased maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks paid back in 2007, The attrition rate among women dropped by 50%. According to Ms. Wojcicki, when women come back taking their time after pregnancy they come with broader insights and a sense of purpose which results in overall higher productivity. Like Google, the US should also act in the right direction to provide benefit for pregnant women as a matter of course. (Pradeep)
Reference:
Wojcicki S. (2014, December 16). Paid maternity leave is good for business. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 08, 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/susan-wojcicki-paid-maternity-leave-is-good-for-business-1418773756
5. Summary
Emily Peck from the Huffington Post believes that parental leave revolution is moving from tech companies to the banking sector. She mentions that tech companies like Facebook, Netflix and Spotify have raised the standards on maternity leave, which is putting pressure on the banking world for doing the same. Credit Suisse, a financial services company from Switzerland, has announced it will start offering US employees paid maternity leave for 20 weeks; previously they were offering 12 weeks paid and 8 weeks unpaid leave.
Emily Peck believes that it is the competition from tech companies that is responsible for this change we start to see now. Elizabeth Donnelly, head of Credit Suisse, has given a statement which says “We are no longer just competing with other financial services firms.” This statement gives the idea that the changes in maternity leave are because of the actions taken by tech companies.
Tech companies are responsible for revolutionizing the way things used to work. For example, Uber changed the taxi industry, and Netflix changed the way people watch television. But the way tech companies care for their employees who become new parents is not discussed often.
Women in the financial sector also face the same issues as women in tech companies. So maternity leave standards should also be similar; otherwise, in the financial sector the number of women will start to decrease. And in the upper management of the financial sector we see a scarcity of women reported by nonprofit organization named Catalyst. There is only one woman among thirteen people in one of the Credit Suisse’s regional offices. Credit Suisse also allows a man to take 20 weeks off if his wife has also taken maternity leave from her job. The action taken by Credit Suisse on maternity leave will greatly help parents to bond with their newborn babies. (Pradeep)
Reference:
Peck E. (2015, November 30). Parental leave revolution moves from tech to banking. Huffington Post. Retrieved September 13, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tech-banking-parental-leave-revolution_us_565c70e8e4b072e9d1c26939
6. Summary
Beth Pinsker, a journalist from New York, talks about how parental leave is going gender neutral in his recent article. He mentions that most companies are making a way towards providing parental leave to fathers as well. Ms. Pinsker gives an example of an employee named Brian Cooksey who joined a tech startup in 2011 as a software developer and was not expecting benefit of parental leave, and also, his company did not think upon such policy. Cooksey was the first employee in that startup to expect a child later, and then his management contacted him for what should be the parental leave policy. Management asked him about 14 weeks paid leave which was a shock to him because he had been a father 3 times before, but his earlier employers never gave him these options.
According to US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of 2014, parental leaves must be provided to both men and women. Some states like California and New Jersey mandate paid family leave. In tech sectors the policy of parental leave is moving in the right direction, but in other sectors there is still a need for work to be done. Ms. Pinsker mentions information given by Rich Fuerstenberg, a senior partner at a consultant company called Mercer, who called to a power company. The CEO of the power company gave a comment, “I am not paying for a dude to have a baby” when the idea of parental leave for the father was given to him.
Making gender-neutral policies are half the battle. The other half is that what message the leave-taking fathers get from their employers. Cooksey was earlier doubtful about the sincerity of the offer his company made. But later when he took the leave it was a good example that he had set for the future fathers at his company. (Pradeep)
Reference:
Pinsker B. (2016, September 14). As baby leaves go gender-neutral, dads get time off. Reuters. Retrieved September 15, 2016, from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-employment-benefits-parentalleave-idUSKCN11K2QO
7. Summary 1
According to Tom Starner’s article in HRDIVE, parental leave in the the U.S. is worse compared to the rest of the world. People are under great pressure, due to the highly competitive working environment. This situation forces women to make a choice, family or work. A study conducted by 2012 Labor Dept. shows that 23% of polled women take parental leave for less than two weeks. This issue has been recognized and many parental leave benefits have been promoted. But real changes can only happen when the federal government makes a law to force states or companies to obey. (Rui Liu)
Reference
Starner, T. (2016, August 16). US paid maternity leave policy continues to lag. HRDIVE. Retrieved on September 8, 2016 from http://www.hrdive.com/news/us-paid-maternity-leave-policy-continues-to-lag/424482/
8. Summary 2
Asheley May wrote in USA Today with the title ‘Moms whose infants died in day care petition for 6 months parental leave’. The author gave two infant death cases in daycare; one happened to a 15-week-old baby and another happened to an 11-week-old baby. Both are due to their mothers’ not having enough time for parental leave to take care of their babies. According to a report of National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, infant death is easy to occur before they reach 6 months. However, the Family Medical Leave Act only provides 12-week leave, which forces many families to return to work very soon, and they have to send their babies to daycare when their babies are most vulnerable. And daycare is clearly not the best option for these very young babies compared to the care from their parents. So these moms and many other people signed the petition for at least 6 months parental leave. (Rui Liu)
Reference:
May, A. (2016, August 30). Moms whose infants died in day care petition for 6 months parental leave. USA Today. Retrieved on September 13, 2016 from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/08/30/moms-whose-infants-died-day-care-petition-6-months-parental-leave/89582828
9. Summary 3
Jacquie Bluethmann discussed the importance of paternity leave in MetroParent Daily. To the newborn children, the importance of dads’ involvement is not less than moms’. Dads have the right to enjoy once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and develop connections with their infants. Also, as women go through a very hard time to deliver a baby, they need men’s support, both ‘physically and emotionally’ as described by the author. But the reality is very few dads take paternity leave or cut the time. The reasons are, first it is not common for dads to take 12-week leave as women; they do not want other people to think they are weak; another reason is they get pressure from the company; their employer may not feel happy. Although men also get job-protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) like women, they have lots of eligibility criteria to meet, and they are not guaranteed to get paid during their leave. All these reasons force men to take less or no paternity leave. (Rui Liu)
Reference:
Bluethmann, J. (2016, September 8). Dads and paternity leave: Why they should take it. MetroParent Daily. Retrieved on September 15, 2016 from http://www.metroparent.com/daily/parenting/parenting-issues-tips/dads-and-paternity-leave-why-they-should-take-it
10. Summary
Jenny Dearborn starts her column in USA TODAY (2016) on parental leave with a riddle: “What gets bigger but never really increases?” and she thinks the answer is maternity and paternity leave.
In her opinion, although companies offer time off packages for employees, at the same time they establish policies to force employees not take their time off. There is a huge pressure on new or expectant mothers to not take the full advantage of their time off and to come back early from leave. Refusing to do so may lead mothers to be cut off from projects, promotions and raises.
She points out that the paradox in parental leave policies is systematic, and even company CEOs try to encourage their employees to not take their full time off. She mentions Mark Zuckerberg, who only took one eighth of his parental leave time off, and Yahoo’s CEO Marisa Meyer, who only took 6 percent of her maternity leave. She considers the latter a terrible message to Yahoo employees and asks Yahoo to be more transparent about their policy.
She emphasizes the huge gap between the time offered to employees and time taken by employees as a negative matter and points out that a slow trend of changing parental leave polices has started in big companies like Amazon and Google. (Sahar)
Reference:
Dearborn, J. (2016, April 27). Offering paid parental leave is just the start. USA Today. Retrieved September 08, 2016, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/04/19/offering-paid-parental-leave-just-start-column/83237980/
11. Summary
David Henderson discusses pros and cons of Hillary Clinton’s approach towards parental leave in Forbes. In his opinion, Clinton’s policy for increasing paid parental leave to up to 12 months would backfire on women of child-bearing age. Businesses will have no interest in hiring women of child-bearing age since the increasing parental leave time makes women less valuable and more risky. Henderson then discusses the cost of paid parental leave; in his idea the economic pressure of parental leave would be borne both by people who take advantage of it and also by people who do not. In other words, the cost will be shifted to other employees. He compares paid parental leave to childbirth health insurance policies in the 80s and how this policy caused lower wages in states which required it. Finally, he concludes, the only way in which extended parental leave would not hurt employees is if it is supported by wealthier taxpayers. (Sahar)
Reference:
Henderson, D. (2016, August 26). Paid parental leave is not a free lunch. Forbes. Retrieved September 14, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/08/26/paid-parental-leave-is-not-a-free-lunch/#53cfb77c19eb
12. Summary
Kathryn Mayer starts her article in EBN by mentioning parental leave as “one of the most obvious and universally appealing work place benefits.” She points out that the United States is far behind in establishing parental leave policies, in comparison to other developed countries. She also thinks even though some companies offer paid parental leave, employees are afraid to take it. She mentions the result of a survey in which 36% of men would not take parental leave, since they thought taking the leave could be seen as a sign of lack of commitment. She concludes her article by pointing out the importance of parental leave in work-life balance and how parental leave policies can turn work places in to a more comfortable space. (Sahar)
Reference:
Mayer, K. (2016, September 15). Views: Parental leave part of a bigger picture. Retrieved September 15, 2016, from http://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/parental-leave-part-of-a-bigger-picture
13. Summary 1
According to this article, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a parental leave of two months, which is much longer than most new parents could have in America, after he and his wife had a daughter. This became an example for the employees in his company, his followers on Facebook, and other executives according to this article.
Parental leave is beneficial to child, mother, father, and gender balance. About one fifth of the companies in the USA provide parental leave that is mostly less than two weeks. However, a lot of new fathers choose to not use it, because they are afraid of being punished including incredulous questions, unfair demotion, and losing jobs. High-powered bosses taking parental leave, in addition to changing policies, is the key to promoting parental leave. (Yu Hua)
Reference:
Garcia, P. (2016, January 7). Why Mark Zuckerberg’s paternity leave is beneficial for all working dads—and moms. Vogue. Retrieved on Sept. 8, 2016, from http://www.vogue.com/13385201/mark-zuckerberg-paternity-leave/
14. Summary 2
According to this article, Silicon Valley likes to have a work-all-the-time moral rule by having on-campus dining, laundry services, and gyms. Everything, except kids, is taken care of in companies, so workers seem to never need to go home.
Considering kids, a lot of tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and Netflix, offer paid parental leave generously. This is provided not because the companies are nice, but because it is good for both employees and employers. Silicon Valley is trying to support and keep current workers, attract excellent potential employees, increase the diversity of workforces in gender perspective, reflect more inclusive company culture, and get great return on offering expensive benefits in the long run. Other companies outside of Silicon Valley may follow and extend their policies when they start to look forward in the future. (Yu Hua)
Reference:
Greenberg, J. (2015, August 13). Tech’s selfish reasons for offering more parental leave. Wired. Retrieved on Sept. 13, 2016, from https://www.wired.com/2015/08/techs-selfish-reasons-offering-parental-leave/
15. Summary 3
According to this article, Donald Trump announced a proposal of paid maternity leave for six weeks, which has never been done by previous Republican presidential nominees. This got people’s attention. However, the proposal fails to meet Americans’ true need. First, it talks about maternity leave with no consideration of new fathers at all, which is not fair and not good for children, moms, or dads. Second, six weeks is too little, since a lot of people’s expectation is four months, which is what many modern companies are offering. Third, it does not include cases when we need to stay with spouses, parents, or other essential family members. In conclusion, Trump’s proposal has a lot of space for improvement. (Yu Hua)
Reference:
Bethell, K. (2016, September 15). What Trump’s parental leave policy is missing. CNN. Retrieved on Sept. 15, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/14/opinions/paid-parental-leave-katie-bethell/
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