Pres. Obama pushes for paid maternity/sick leave

[aggiebug]

Being in the DC area this has been heavily discussed on my local board. basically it does next to nothing for a very very small percentage of the population.

It grants advanced sick leave which is already available to most feds and just leaves you in a hole for the first yr+ you are back, or they have a leave donation bank.

It honestly seems more like a political stunt to me than a call for action.

[kmcookie]

I agree with you aggiebug. The paid sick leave that would apply to private employers is seven days a year. Seven. It will take a whole lot more than just Obama to get anywhere on this issue. That being said: thehill.com/regulation/business/229292-dems-next-big-issue Here's hoping, right?

[catladytx]

I love this. My employer before I had DS didn't pay for sick time, and only gave us maternity because of FMLA and STD/LTD.

[aggiebug]

Jan 16, 2015 14:53:16 GMT -5 catladytx said:

I love this. My employer before I had DS didn't pay for sick time, and only gave us maternity because of FMLA and STD/LTD.

Unfortunately this memo would have done absolutely nothing for you. Well I am guessing on that but the terms are so narrow on this memo it is almost useless. 

Even here, where a majority of the people work for the government it is doing nothing for them.  For those that is does "help" it is really not that great. You get advanced sick leave, so yeah its unpaid right now but if you have to take off for a sick baby, or a well check appointment those are probably unpaid days. 

[trin42]

There was a really interesting article on this in a financial magazine my boss got today. I can't remember the magazine though.

I think it said less than 25% of Americans get paid maternity leave. I had no idea it was that low. It also had other interesting stats comparing the US to other countries

[seamonster]

It would be nice if the US was not one of only 6 countries that don't have paid maternity leave. It doesn't do much for most people, but maybe it will get the conversation going.

[natsgirl]

Well, the president doesn't have the power to issue federal employees more leave than they already receive. Hence him just officially allowing advanced sick leave. Sure any agencies will do that if requested but some won't. And some employees may not think to ask for it. Obama did ask congress to pass a bill that allows for 6 weeks of administrative leave for parents. That would be awesome. But only congress has the ability to do that. Also, something like this has been talked about for several years yet nothing has happened still. I'm not holding my breath but it's definitely time for this country to step it up and offer paid parental leave.

[lotsofdotts]

I guess I am lucky because as a teacher I can use my sick/vacation leave for maternity leave, and if I don't have enough, people can donate leave. My DH and I both teach at the same school, so if I am not ready to come back when I exhaust all my leave, he can donate leave and let me stay home.

It is appalling that as a country that we are so far behind the rest of the world with maternity leave. We lead in so many things but are so archaic in our treatment of mothers.

[lrjjj08]

Luckily the owner of my company is amazing and I will have 18 weeks of paid time off. The first 7 weeks will be at 60% and the next 11 are at 100%. I can't imagine having to go back after a couple of weeks. It's sad that in 2015, we still don't have any mandatory paid time off!