(classical music)
(writing on chalkboard)
- So Brain Stuff, did you know
there's only two countries
without legally partially-paid
time off for working women
who just had a kid?
Yeah.
It's Papua New Guinea and, wait for it,
the United States.
And that's kind of crazy when you consider
that women are 47 percent
of the workforce in the U.S.
And the Bureau of Labor
Statistics found that as of 2013,
64 percent of mothers, with
kids under the age of 6, work.
So why don't we have paid maternity leave?
Maternity leave is a federal
and employer-sponsored policy
used primarily by working
women for childbirth.
There's different policies
all over the world
but they all have 3 goals in common.
1) To keep women as part of
the workforce after childbirth.
2) To promote gender equality, and
3) To encourage citizens
to have more children.
But do these policies work?
And do they meet their goals?
In the U.S., we have the
Family and Medical Leave Act
passed by Congress in 1993.
It allows parents to
take up to 12 work weeks
of leave after the birth of a child.
But it does not require an employer
to pay these new parents.
It just protects their job.
About half of working
Americans are covered
by the FMLA and only 12 percent of workers
have access to paychecks while on leave.
A Cornell University study
found that women in the U.S.
are more likely to drop
out of the workforce
than women in countries with paid leave.
And the ones who keep
working are more likely
to have high-paying jobs
and a college education.
However, countries with
paid leave, like Canada,
have more women in low-paying
jobs and part-time jobs.
Research has found that in Russia,
even during the transition from communism,
paid maternity leave helped
women stay in the labor market.
Other studies link paid maternity leave
to higher job retention, as well.
So yes, maternity leave
seems to keep women working.
What about equality between men and women?
Well, having children usually widens
any pre-existing earnings gaps
between male and female employees.
Women often have babies right
at the peak of their careers,
and this disrupts their economic stability
so that an American
woman's earnings decrease
by 4 percent for each child she has.
And weirdly, men's wages actually increase
by 6 percent for each of their kids.
When women enter the workforce
there's barely any gap in wages.
But, as they get older and
progress in their careers,
the discrepancy grows, especially when
they have those money-grubbing children.
In fact, a 2010 study
found that as much as half
of the wage gap is because
women take time off
to raise children, losing
3 percent of their earnings
each year they're away from work.
So it seems that whether
maternity leave is paid or not
having children results
in lower wages for women
leaving a gap in gender equality.
So far, we're one for two with
maternity leave making its goals.
So how's it doing at encouraging
people to have babies?
Well, previous research has indicated
that women wait to have children
based on their employment status.
But in the U.S., women eligible for leave
have their first child a year earlier
than women who aren't eligible.
The implementation of the FMLA
seems to have increased fertility rates
among eligible women,
raising the probability
they'll give birth to both
a first and a second child.
And in other countries there's evidence
that incentive-driven policies either have
a positive impact on
fertility or no effect at all.
There's a little bit of data bias
looking at these fertility rates
because mothers who already wanted
more than one child are more likely
to take certain kinds of jobs
and have longer maternity
leaves with their first birth.
But it's fair to say that
maternity leave policies
do increase the likelihood
of citizens having children.
Two out of 3 goals ain't bad.
But if we want maternity
leave to meet its goals
of sustaining a healthy,
fair, and hard-working society
we can do better.
So tell us in the comments about the kind
of maternity leave that's available
where you live and work.
And to celebrate Mother's Day this week,
I'm also hosting a What the Stuff? episode
on 5 famous mothers, as well as
The Stuff Mom Never Told You episode
on baby fever.
Check 'em out.
And for more information on
moms, maternity, and babies
you can find all of our
articles, podcasts, and videos
at HowStuffWorks.com.
