By Debbie Hauss, Editor-In-Chief
I can’t deny that I was elated when I saw the news that Mark Zuckerberg is planning to take two months off for Paternity Leave. I was even more thrilled to see that the Paternity Leave policy was extended throughout the Facebook company to include four months of paid time off for all employees around the globe.
To me, Zuckerberg has undone some of the damage created by Marissa Mayer a few years ago when she eliminated Yahoo’s Work From Home policy. While Mayer eventually stated that her decision for Yahoo was not necessarily best for every company, it still caused quite a stir.
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So obviously there are different schools of thought on these issues. Also, if business leaders are not rushing to institute four months of paid leave for all their employees, they’re probably also not rushing to share their feelings on the topic publicly.
But the facts are the facts: Currently only about 12% of American companies offer paid maternity or paternity leave, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. That’s a 5% decrease from 17% in 2010. And the U.S. is one of just two countries in the world that does not guarantee paid time off for new mothers, never mind fathers. And just three states — New Jersey, Rhode Island and California — have enacted paid leave policies at the state level.
While it seems that U.S. businesses are not concerned about being laggards when it comes to maternity or paternity leave — and it would be nice if they were interested in considering the overall health and happiness of employees — maybe they should consider the long-term business benefits of an updated policy. A number of analysts and business experts have shared insights into why paid leave is a good business decision for their companies as well as the overall economy:
- Paid Leave improves retail sales: As reported by Business Insider: The US Department of Agriculture found that new parents spend, on average, approximately $70 a month for baby clothes and diapers and more than $120 a month on baby food and formula. And big-ticket items like furniture and medical expenses add up quickly. Without the guarantee of paid leave while caring for a child, many new parents are faced with the choice between economic hardship and returning to work prematurely.
- Paid Leave reduces the number of consumers on public assistance: According to a 2012 report from the US Department of Labor on family and medical leave, approximately 15% of people who were not paid or who received partial pay while on leave turned to public assistance for help. As many as 60% of workers who took this leave reported it was difficult making ends meet, and almost half reported they would have taken longer leave if more pay had been available.
- Paid Leave returns more people to the workforce faster: As reported by fastcompany.com, a 2012 report from the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University stated that women who took paid leave were more likely to be working nine to 12 months after a child’s birth, compared to those with no paid leave.
“Why Paid Leave Policies Are Bad”
Not to be biased in one direction or another, I sought to find out if there were credible sources stating that paid leave is bad, so I searched: “Why paid leave policies are bad.” Nothing came up that included that phrase, but I did access the whitehouse.gov pdf titled: The Economics Of Paid And Unpaid Leave, June 2014. This report largely argues the need for paid and unpaid leave in the U.S., but it asserts that unpaid leave is just not realistic for lower wage workers. So companies that rely on unpaid leave as a benefit to their workforce are mostly kidding themselves.
It’s not a new topic, but thanks to Mark Zuckerberg more of us are talking about it today.
