Angelika This year, Christmas came around too quickly once again, and you might groan, "What, another newsletter already? I haven't even read the last one!" But I don't want to break the tradition of the Christmas newsletter, and perhaps there will be a little time to read it over the holidays, between visiting relatives and the Christmas roast.
I have long considered which topics would be suitable for this year's special newsletter, as a lot has happened again in 2014. But I have wanted to write about maternity leave in the USA for a long time, and Christmas is particularly fitting for this, as it is not just about gifts and Christmas trees, but about the birth of a child. The USA is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have a legally regulated paid maternity leave. Although President Clinton introduced the so-called "Federal Family and Medical Leave Act" (FMLA) for the USA in 1993, the law only allows employees to take an unpaid leave of absence for 12 weeks with job protection to care for a newborn or seriously ill child, to care for a sick spouse, or to recover from a serious illness themselves.
However, this law is only binding for companies and businesses with more than 50 employees. There are occasional initiatives to introduce paid parental leave nationwide in America, but in recent years, there hasn't been much progress. When it comes to social benefits, living here sometimes feels like living in the Middle Ages. As is often the case in the USA, some states grew tired of waiting for Washington and have enacted more generous parental leave regulations. For example, many states have lowered the 50-employee threshold or allow for longer unpaid leave. In about a handful of states, there are provisions that allow for partially paid maternity leave or parental leave. It's rather a poor showing for 50 states.
Anyone who gets pregnant and lives in California can consider themselves fortunate, as the state of California offers one of the most comprehensive protections. Pregnant women can take advantage of payments from California's Short Term Disability Insurance. Although they receive only about 55% of their salary, women can typically receive these payments for 4 weeks before the birth and 6 weeks after the birth in the case of a normal pregnancy, provided they have paid into the insurance, which is mandatory in California if one is employed. Every Californian employee contributes a percentage of their salary to the insurance. The amount is automatically deducted on each paycheck and is 1% of the gross salary in 2014.
The same insurance also funds the so-called "Paid Family Leave" in California, which has existed since 2004. It provides 55% of the salary for six weeks (up to a certain maximum amount, which is currently around $1,000 per week in California) from the state of California, to stay at home with the baby after birth or to care for seriously ill family members. Both fathers and mothers (including same-sex parents or adoptive parents) are entitled to the six weeks. Both parents can take the six weeks together or separately. The parents do not need to take the six weeks consecutively. However, California grants the paid six weeks only once every 12 months, which means that a Californian who has taken time off to care for a newborn cannot take time off again within this period, for example, to care for another family member.
The biggest disadvantage of this program is that it does not include a job security clause. However, those who work at large companies like Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and so on, can be sure that these companies offer good conditions (by American standards) regarding parental leave. At Google, mothers receive 5 months of paid maternity leave, at Yahoo each parent gets 8 weeks paid, and the mother can stay at home for 16 weeks at full salary after giving birth, with job security.
In contrast, I wouldn't receive anything from my employer and would have to rely on the aforementioned programs from California. And that's exactly the problem when there are no uniform nationwide laws. It would be fair if everyone, regardless of which state they live in or which company they work for, could take parental leave.
In this spirit, we wish you all a Merry Christmas.
Angelika & Michael