Until we added a daughter to our family two years ago, FMLA and maternity leave were topics that I didn’t think twice about.
Now I see it as a critical area that is affecting our nation’s culture surrounding family and work. Did you know that the U.S. is the only industrialized country, and only one of three countries, that does not give the right to paid maternity leave. (There’s a whole conversation here about paternity leave too. I got you, dads. That will be another post someday.)
What is FMLA? Here’s a quick run down if you aren’t familiar:
- The Family Medical Leave Act protects 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a year period.
- It includes family circumstances for a new baby, aging parents, serious illness, and adoption to name a few. Basically covering time demands of your immediate family.
Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, there are loopholes:
- To qualify you must work for a company of 50+ employees, eliminating about 40 percent of the workforce.
- You must be at your company for 12 months and have worked 1,250 hours in that year.
- Plus, if you accept paid leave during this time, you no longer qualify for FMLA protection.
From my experience, when couples begin to have children, they live through a few years of uncertainty, juggling priorities. This is taking out each generation at the knees and, as a nation, we aren’t fully recovering. For women who are called to the workforce, but also called to motherhood, they are forced to make a decision that can alter and cripple a career path.
One of my favorite case studies involves a change of policy at Google. After Google increased its paid maternity leave from 3 to 5 months, they saw a 50 percent reduction in its female attrition rate. That’s less women leaving the company and less resources spent on turnover. Other companies have seen similar results.
Imagine what our nation could be like with a focus on family and the health of the employees!
Disclaimer: Please don’t confuse my opinion about the state our nation with dissatisfaction at my workplace. This post doesn’t reflect my current job. In fact, my office has been accommodating to the birth of my second child.
You are absolutely correct Andrea. My daughter, Marissa is having this struggle right now. Her employer gives her 6 weeks paid leave. After that time, she may extend her leave to 12 weeks unpaid. What a difficult choice to make: stay home a few extra weeks to ensure successful breastfeeding establishment or pay the rent? If she lived abroad or in Canada, there would not be an issue.
Thanks for the comment, Jean! It’s a very real issue that our nation is facing.
Andrea,
You bring up some great points here. However I do have a couple issues with your stance, not that you really took one. Maternity leave is a great benefit and should be in every workplace that can afford it. You mention that employees who are protected by the FMLA need to work for companies with 50+ employees. This is a great way to not bankrupt small businesses that truly rely on their employees, sometimes on a weekly basis, to make a profit or break even. I say this as an employee who just dealt with a secretary going on leave and us having to make up the slack. We kept her job for her but it was not easy and a year earlier we would had to have laid her off. Not every business can afford to give leave and insurance for that matter. Google saw a 50% reduction in their attrition rate which is a great result, but they are a massive business, group of businesses, that make excellent profits and can eat into them to boost employee morale.
Our nation’s issues are not leave or paternity leave (I have major issues with this one) for that matter. It is the time we spend with our kids and the quality of that time. Mothers are supposed to nurture and protect, that is how they were designed but we have made a situation where they are required to work. This is fine if you are called to work, my wife is, and I have no issue with that. That is between mothers and God. My issue comes when government is brought in and forces businesses to do things contrary to their goals and profit margins. Government is not the answer.
I think there is no ability to have true capitalism without responsibility. To do so is to make a provision of what capitalism really is. We do not have capitalism in the US anymore. We have deformed it into a type of crony capitalism and proclaim that we are the example for the world. In a truly capitalist system the workforce is important to the owner/managers and their needs are thusly important to them. If a company hires women, again their choice, they need to be sensitive to their needs and desires as both employee and mother in the home.
Should a business be put in a position that requires them to hold a position for someone who is not performing? And no matter the case taking five months off is hard for me to swallow. I will need to replace you in that time especially in a construction environment. Just some thoughts…
Thanks for the thoughts Todd! I’m not sure what the answer is. But I will say that I love seeing companies and people prioritizing family. And not needing to cripple a career path to do that.
[…] now we only have the FMLA law as a nation that speaks into rights in the workplace after a child has been born or adopted. (I […]