Debate Over Paid Family Leave Is Louder Than Ever

 Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/debate-over-paid-family-leave-is-louder-than-ever-11635564747?mod=hp_lead_pos9

MLA: 

Dagher, Allison. "Debate Over Paid Family Leave Is Louder Than Ever". WSJ, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/debate-over-paid-family-leave-is-louder-than-ever-11635564747?mod=hp_lead_pos9. Accessed 30 Oct 2021.

In Capitol Hill, democrats have had to drop the paid-leave program from the new $1.85 trillion climate and social-spending bill. This has caused an uproar from americans across multiple social-media platforms who are sharing their opinions on paid family leave and dealing with it throughout the pandemic. Many Americans who favor the bill don't even have the option, and if anything only 28% of U.S. employees are given the option to take paid family leave, with the majority being offered to employed men. 

Questions and concerns still circle from outside critics such as how a national program would be funded, how long leave for families should last, and how much compensation employees should receive. 

Furthermore, how is it than women of color, of women who work lower wage jobs can receive this compensation? They are less able to have access to paid leave but in a recent survey done by the institute for women's policy research discovered that 70% of women with children and 69% of women without children feel paid leave should be an option. 

Since the leaders at Capitol Hill have not been able to make a decision and furthermore have chosen to forego including the bill in the $1.85 trillion dollar budget, nine states have passed paid family medical leave laws. 

Hopefully more states follow in these footsteps and ultimately Capitol hill will agree that this is best for new and expecting families. 

Other countries who offer maternity leave and are considered the best and most thoughtful are Finald, Germany, Iceland, and Norway. Overall though, more than 120 nations provide paid maternity leave, and Bulgaria even offers a leave of absence for a couple weeks over a year! 

The U.S. sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to many other countries who have mandated paid leave and even extended vacation time whereas the U.S. also falls far behind. Could it be our blindness to the division between classes? Our dire "need" to stay ahead of production and be the world's leading economy through our already prolonged work hours and deadlines? Could it be because people look at maternity leave as a wimpy decision for people with jobs? Morally and ethically it's wrong to not offer the time and compensation especially if you want happy employees, but even if Capitol hill decided paid maternity leave should be mandated, they then must decide for how long and how much.