A new analysis of data from the Department of Labor shows that the United States' lack of paid leave policy, has meant that many working women are forced to skimp or skip out on maternity leave. This is while at the other end of the spectrum high-end firms that employ the most well-educated and well-paid U.S. workers compete in a benefits arms race.
According to an analysis conducted by researchers at Abt Associates, nearly one in four new mothers surveyed in 2012 were back at work within just two weeks of having a new baby.
The researchers surveyed 2,852 workers who took leave in 2012, with special emphasis on the 93 women who took time off to care for a new baby. Of those women, about 12 percent took a week or less; another 11 percent took between one and two weeks off, according to the analysis. Education had a role to play with college graduates opting for longer leaves: Eighty percent of the women who took at least six weeks leave had a degree. Only 54 percent of women without a degree were able to do so, according to the Huffington Post.
"Talking to women in this situation was just heartbreaking," said journalist Sharon Lerner, author of the In These Times piece and a senior fellow at Demos.
The figures have come close at the heels of many tech companies offering huge increases in the amount of maternity and paternity leave. Netflix grants new mothers and fathers anywhere within its workforce would be allowed up to a year in paid time off, to split however they wanted. Microsoft has recently said that it will triple its allowance to new father up to 12 weeks, as well as increasing allowances for mothers to 20 weeks, reports The Daily Mail.
The report has managed to highlight the vast rift between the country's have and have-not parents. "The highest-paid workers are most likely to have [paid leave]. More than 1 in 5 of the top 10 percent of earners are getting paid family leave, compared to 1 in 20 in the bottom quartile.," wrote Lerner, in the report, according to Los Angeles Sun Post.
