Maternity Leave Protection

The length of maternity leave granted according to A.L Sutton (2009) “nearly one quarter… [of] working mother[s

As we move into the new millennium more and more employers are allowing, some are even encouraging, their employees to bring their newborn babies to work with them. This is probably one of the greatest changes in child care norms that this country has seen in the past 30 years. Once upon a time, when a woman had a baby she almost always quit her job to raise her child, depending on her husband to support her and her child. Then along came the idea of maternity leave. This is when a woman takes a certain amount of time off to be with newborn. Once this time period was up, the woman still had a job to go back to. This meant that women no longer had to rely on their husbands for support. Unfortunately it also

Maternity leave is a retreat that all mothers should have the opportunity to experience after childbirth. The birth of a child can be exciting, exhausting, and challenging for all new mothers experiencing the joys of parenthood. Unfortunately for some working mothers living in the United States, maternity leave is not always guaranteed. The United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave. An idea so common in other countries is considered a luxury benefit for hard-working mothers in the United States.

What is Family and Medical leave Act (FMLA)? The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that was passed in 1993, is a national policy that grants workers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave in four situations. These four situations are for pregnancy; to care for an infant, such as newborns, newly-placed foster children, and adoptions; to care for a relative with a serious health condition; or to allow an employee to recover and recuperate from a personal serious health condition. This paper will be discussing the impact of FMLA on employers and the protections provided by this law. (Vikesland, 2009)

Although current federal and state level legislation guarantee some protections, these policies do not cover all new parents. Parents must have worked a minimum of 5 months while contributing to State Disability Insurance to receive 55% of their salary during 6 weeks of their parental leave, and must have worked with an employer for 1 year to quality for 12 weeks of unpaid leave (“About Paid Family Leave (PFL),” n.d.). Parental leave is not accessible to all adults in the United States because of these requirements, and therefore makes early parenting even more challenging for working adults. Nationally, the trend for mothers on maternal leave has stagnated, although the US economy has expanded (Zagorsky, 2017).

Currently, the U.S. is the only modernized country not to offer paid leave to new mothers (Hall). The one legal protection offered by the U.S government is the Family and Medical Leave Act, or the FMLA. Since it became legislation in 1993, the FMLA has guaranteed a new mother job security for twelve weeks after her child is born. It does not, however, mandate pay. The FMLA also has other downsides. Women are only secured their twelve weeks of leave if they work a minimum of 1,250 hours a year and work for a company with fifty or more employees (Hall). This means that only two out of every five women qualify for protection (Hall). If a women does not qualify, it is left to her employer’s discretion to decide how long she will get to stay with her

The workplace has changed in many ways. In the past there was stereotyping, gender discrimination, bad conditions, and less freedom and benefits for employees. Nowadays employers take precautions not to make any of those blunders. New laws and company policies helped improve the workplace. One reform that was established was the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, also known as the FMLA. This act helped employees and employers take personal leave. The main reason why the Family Medical Leave Act was created was due to gender discrimination. Females were allowed to take leave due to the stereotype that mothers have to take care of the family. Men were discouraged and less likely to take off. The FMLA helped equalize the ability to take leave for

The government understood the difficulty of balancing work and childcare. As mentioned previously, FMLA permits mother to take medical leave for the period of time during which they are physically unable to work due to pregnancy, childbirth, recovery and related medical conditions. Additionally, both parents to take leave for the birth of a child, and for the placement of a child for adoption or foster. Thus, the leave allows the parents to bond with their child within one year of the child’s birth or placement. Nevertheless, according Gomby and Pei (2009), the two most important determinants of whether parents take leave are if the leave is paid and job-protected. Although FMLA provides job protection, it is unpaid, therefore many parents decide not to take it or may return to work earlier than they would have wanted to so they can support their

It has been argued that maternity leave is not only harmful to business but also to women themselves, and that it can be a burden on businesses so they may think twice about employing women. (7) Where leave is given, whether paid or unpaid, businesses have to fill the position vacated by the parents and this in itself creates additional work and cost for employers who have to pay for job advertisements, background checks and time for interviews. They are also faced with the cost of training the temporary

Family and Medical Leave Act was passed by the Congress and signed into the law in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. Since that time, millions of hard working Americans, were able to take up to 12 week of unpaid leave to bond with their newborn or newly adopted child, take care of own or immediate family member health condition or provide a childcare role in case of spouse covered military deployment, without a worry of losing the job or benefits associated with employment. (History of FMLA, 2015). In order to take FMLA leave an employee must meet a series of guidelines that establish eligibility for it, such as working at least 12 months with minimum of 1250 hours in those 12 months for employer who has staff of 50 or more people. According

To begin, the Family and Medical Leave Act also known as "FMLA" purpose is demanding balance between the workplace and the needs of the family, to show equal employment opportunities for both, men and women, and lastly to have protection for jobs and benefits during eligible leave (PowerPoint Presentation, n.d). As I read more on the FMLA, I learned that an employee who’s under the FMLA, they are eligible to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family or medical reason but still able to receive their health benefits and have job security (PowerPoint Presentation, n.d). To answer the question, I believe that the FMLA wouldn't be too restrictive for human service workers. The slides have taught me a lot because I am not knowledgeable on this act. Things

The Family Medical Leave Act, FMLA, of 1993 was created to help both men and women juggle between the demands at work and the ones at home. The first law of its kind, FMLA, protects eligible workers from losing their jobs when extended time off is needed to care for a new baby, adopted or placed; a critically ill family member, or for their own serious health condition.

The title of the article I chose for this current event was Paid Family Leave: An Elusive Option for Many U.S. Workers. This article is about paid family leave that have children or other family situations. When reading Buttenwieser’s article, I noticed that she talked about how “ the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave” (2015). In this case, it let the workers to take care a newborn or an ill relative deprived of dropping their work. The article stated that this law only applied to companies who had 50 or more people and who have worked an assured quantity of period. Buttenwieser stated that the “Family and Medical Leave Act gives essential employment insurances, numerous

A Maternity leave now often called parental or family leave, is the time a mother (or father) takes off from work for the birth or adoption of a child.

It has been noticed across the United States that new mothers are returning back to work earlier, rather than staying home on maternity leave for the approved 12-weeks. There have been many reasons expressed as to why mothers come back to work only six weeks after having a child, some of them astounding after seeing how we compare to the rest of the world. New mothers feel the pressure at work and they will miss out on a job promotion since they were gone for a marked period of time. Others are single parents and just cannot afford to stay at home without any additional income. Even mothers that are married and the spouse has a steady income, this can still be a factor as to why the mother would return to work early. Because they