How The U.S. Parental Leave Policy Stacks Up Against The World

by hazelgarcia | Oct 2, 2017

Parental leave is one of the more controversial topics in the U.S.

Unlike many other countries, the U.S. offers no paid parental leave which puts many young parents in a financial pinch. The alternative to paid parental leave provided is the Family and Medical Leave Act. If an employee qualifies, they can take up to 12 weeks off after the birth of a child or a family medical emergency.

Unfortunately, many employees can’t afford to go 12 weeks without a paycheck. To make matters more complicated, only 60% of workers qualify for FMLA. To be eligible for FMLA, an employee needs to work full-time for a company for a year, and that company needs to employ 50 employees within 75 miles. This means most parents end up going back to work early or falling back on credit cards during their parental leave.

Don't leave your career to chance- download our post-maternity leave career guide to help you in this time of transition.

While certain states such as California and Rhode Island make changes at the state level and select companies such as Spotify and Netflix are increasing the time off, it still falls short of many other countries. The United States is part of the roughly 4% of countries in the United Nations that does not provide any paid parental leave. Parents are forced to earn extra money ahead of time to try and offset the difference.

Why it would be beneficial for the U.S. to provide paid parental leave

Recent research has shown that paid parental leave has several benefits including lowering infant mortality rate, improved breastfeeding rate, and a lower risk of depression for women that get more than 8 weeks of paid leave and 12 weeks of maternal leave.

Developing a paid parental leave program would provide several benefits to those employed in the United States. Check out the infographic from Investment Zen below to learn more about how the U.S. stacks up to other countries in parental leave. You might be surprised how much other countries provide for parental leave as well as learn some interesting facts in the process.

After a gap away from work it can sometimes feel daunting to go back. Take a look at our online workshop Building your Confidence to prepare you for your return.

parental leave in the U.S

Are you supporting the Female Talent Pipeline? For support and coaching, take a look at our Corporate Services

hazelgarcia Contributor

Hazel Garcia is a writer and graphic designer for InvestmentZen who loves maximizing (and spending!) credit card rewards. In her spare time she's also an avid traveler and foodie, and often goes on adventures with her faithful canine companion Momo.

[email protected]

Found that interesting?
Learn more about our services

Individual services

Make your dreams a reality with a professional evaluation of your career to date.

more info

Corporate services

The evidence is in. More women in your company can deliver 35% greater financial returns. (Catalyst)

more info

Upcoming events

We currently have no events planned.

Join our mailing list to get notified about our upcoming events.

Download and listen free podcasts

Micro-targeting a marketing strategy to attract female candidates

Marketing uses micro-targeting to appeal to female consumers, so why does HR not use micro-targeting to bring women into companies?

When persistence becomes a fatal flaw

Is it always the personality trait you need to reach your goals, or can you reach a point when persistence becomes a fatal flaw?

Women should leverage Facebook for job search

The concept of using Facebook for job search may seem odd, but it is the future, and it will help women in the workplace.

Request A Call Back

If you would like to speak to us about our services and how we can help you, please complete the form below and we will call back at a convenient time.

Gordana Frgacic

Human Resource Management, career development and international business

Gordana Frgacic, is a highly experienced HR Manager, working for international companies. She is a Board Member and published author on career development strategies for women, including negotiation and job search.

Her specialities include all aspects of Human Resource management, general management and career assessment and development.

Zsuzsanna Frency-Boyd

Manufacturing, supply chain sales and commercial management, operations, program management

Zsuzsanna is a true „International Citizen” who has lived and worked in 6 different countries, 3 different continents. 15+ years with General Electric in different European HQ leadership roles. She is an alumni of GE Corporate Audit Staff , GE Manufacturing Leadership Programs also a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Her continuous quest is to balance her Engineering acumen (Masters Degree in High Voltage Electrical Engineering) with her “creative” side (Literature Award, Drawing) and effectively embed in her day to day work.

Wendy Kerr

Fmcg, marketing and business strategy, Start-ups

Successful global corporate career for over 18 years. In this time she created many start-ups for multinational corporations, designing and implementing the business and marketing strategy. She has developed and led marketing campaigns for a number of famous brands; Colgate, Smirnoff, Tia Maria, and Apple. Now an executive coach specializing in “intrapreneurship” and women who wish to become entrepreneurs

Victoria Pynchon

Law, conflict resolution, disputes, diplomacy

After a 25-year commercial litigation career, Victoria earned her legal master’s degree in dispute resolution from the world-famous Straus Institute at Pepperdine University School of Law. The knowledge, wisdom and skills she gained at Straus can be found in her two books on dispute resolution, The Grownups’ ABCs of Conflict Resolution, Second Edition (She Negotiates Press, 2013) and Success as a Mediator for Dummies (Wiley, 2012).

Tanya M. Odom

NGO, private/corporate sector, and education arena

Tanya M. Odom is a global consultant and coach with a Masters in Education, Adminstration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard. Her areas of expertise include diversity and inclusion, leadership, mindfulness, and women/girls’ equity. Tanya is passionate about personal and organizational development that is inclusive, authentic, and purposeful.

Susan West

Pharmaceutical, manufacturing and financial service industries as well as a global non-profit

Susan has 20+ years of experience and held leadership positions in HR, talent management, leadership and organisation development at business unit and corporate levels. She is a visiting business school consultant delivering programs on leadership, organisation and career development. She has lived and worked in the US and Europe and thrives in multi-cultural environments at work and at home.

Lucie Newcomb

Global Business/Marketing, Services Marketing , Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Women in Technology/STEM, Leadership Development, Global Leadership

30 years in business; 20 globally M.A., Leadership, St. Mary’s College of California; B.A., U.C. Berkeley

Lorraine Hendrickson

Financial services and banking

Senior strategy and operations executive with 20 years multi-national experience in strategic planning, operations and programme management, for global distribution and investment management businesses.

Leda Karabela

A marketing, fundraising and communication professional with over 25 years of global executive experience for major international companies. She has earned an LL.B. in Jurisprudence, an MSc in Communication from Boston University and an Executive Coaching Graduate degree from University of Texas, Dallas School of Management. She is a Certified coach. BP and Microsoft, and has lived in Boston, San Francisco, London, Athens and Dubai.