The importance of changing maternity leave to paid leave in the u.s.

I would love to talk about the importance of changing maternity leave to paid leave for all mother to qualify a percentage of their salary for new mothers in America. According Christopher Ingraham from The Washington post the U. S. is still the only country with unpaid leave for new mothers. This needs to change ASAP because this affects me on a personal level in so many ways. I want a family of my own some day and I don’t want to have to choose between starting my family or choosing my career I would love to have both without struggling to decide to do so. New mothers in the Finland are paid up to three years. Norwegian moms get 91 weeks and the U. K. new moms get 39 weeks of Paid leave (Christopher Ingraham). This blows my mind because other countries understand how important it is for a mother to be home with the baby after birth. They`re considering the health risk mentally and physically that mothers suffer, and it takes more than 6-12 weeks to get back to yourself. If America understood all of that we would see a big difference in women in the work industry. America is still behind watching our families struggle and watching poverty rates go up.

Mothers who are in their career field often only gets 6-12 weeks of unpaid leave with their job and sometimes have to use their vacation to spend more time at home with their new born babies.

“ The FMLA pays mothers who fit the certain criteria it will only cover Private-sector employer, with 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, including a joint employer or successor in interest to covered employer only.” Which is not fair to the mother who haven’t taken any additional days off from work just because they don’t qualify under the FMLA private sector.

All mothers should qualify having children isn’t easy and it costs money. As I stated before some mothers used their vacation time or sick days. When using your vacation time that is sometimes paid and some companies offer PTO (paid time off) which will help out a lot. Just depending on the company’s policy will depend on whether the mother will choose to use all of her annual time up or vacation time up. It`s tough because by using all your time up and then returning back to work and if something comes up you don’t have any time off.

The FMLA pays mothers who are eligible that “ has worked for employers for at least 12 months, has at least 1, 250 hours of service for the employer during a 12-month period immediately preceding the leave, also they have to work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles” (dol. gov). Also, by only allowing mothers to go through the hassle of trying to get FMLA approved is a big issue especially for single mothers it puts them in a financial situation if the mother didn’t save in advance to the baby arrival. bills don’t stop when you are building a family. I really want to understand the many reasons why the U. S. doesn’t find it as a benefit for the nation to give mother more time and extend the paid leave or a certain percentage of their pay even if it’s not the full amount something is better than nothing at all. I know some mothers have a support system but not all mothers do and that’s really hard on them when they`re not getting any sort of income to provide for themselves and children. I was just watching this TV show and the woman was pregnant and her coworkers were asking her when she`s going to come back to work because she only gets 6 weeks. They all started laughing and said she`s not going to stay out that long because she will not be getting paid I was surprised that they address that issues. I would love to change that because in other countries they are granted a longer paid leave and a percentage of their salary. Also, that depends if the mother job is hourly or salary which determines if you will qualify for paid leave or not. The first 6 months is very important because you have to bond with your baby and the mothers who breast feed I know it hard for them to leave their baby at home and some mothers give up on breast feeding all together just to return back to work. I want a family someday and I do not want to go through this difficult situation in the future because not having enough time to be off with your new born and not being paid while being off from work after you just had a baby can really put new mothers in a finical crisis. It costs 12, 000 to raise a new born and that’s just to get started. The more they grow the more they cost, and mothers needs paid maternity leave.

It Is sad that most mother who are full time workers can`t even get the benefit of paid maternity leave after being mentally and physically drain from giving birth. The only good thing I can see that moms get out of this is that they still have their job which is a good thing, but they are still being lack benefits. Maternity leave needs a big policy change. New mothers fall under a lot of debt in U. S. even some mother make the decision not to return back to work after giving birth because they are aware of the policy works. But unfortunately mothers who have support systems are the only ones able to do so. Single mother doesn’t have that luxury they have to return back to work after six weeks. Some may have to turn to government instance for help if they qualify for it.

I honestly feel if the policy was to change the turnover rate for some companies will go down and they will see a difference in their health care cost there are some good outcomes to come from it the U. S. just has to get on board to granting mothers paid maternity leave to make it easier on families. Yes, I can see why some companies feel like they would lose money because there isn’t any work being done when their employee that’s out is being paid. But at the same time when you have good benefits to gain from your employees because they will end up staying and the turnover rate for women will go down in the work place. Because some mother is torn between rushing back to work or staying home with their new born. Credit card debt for families will definitely go down because they will be able to pay their bills on time. Making a change to the maternity leave policy will help mothers out a lot so they wouldn’t have to turn to public assistance and the numbers for that will go down as well. Not having paid maternity leave affects mothers everywhere in America but it mostly affects women of colors and single mothers. Granting mothers more will also help with the status of new mother’s health and mentally and physically it gives them so much time to recover from giving birth because it takes some women longer to heal. I believe my three minors being fashion merchandising, Mass communication, and women studies. I could address the issues or paid maternity leave. All my minors play a big part into the issue I’m addressing. My minors will help bring more awareness to mothers that need help. I hope by me addressing this issue it will make a difference and I hope that I can conclude where I can help make a change to better improve the FMLA policy for mothers and grant them paid leave. My first minor which is fashion merchandising and by having this as one of my minors I have learned a lot about the business world. Especially the ends and out of it being a fashion merchandising minor you have to know how to market what you`re trying to sell. By me wanting to gain attention to the paid leave situation I have to know how to sell my ideas and business plan in order to make a change. Fashion merchandising minors is about marketing and management and I will do just that when giving the opportunity to. Fashion merchandising is all about attracting your target market to a certain product but in my case, I will use to attract attention to making a change in the national policy in U. S it`s all about distributing a service.

My second minor Mass Communication has taught me a lot and it has given me a voice. Having mass communication as a minor it teaches you how to take a stand on what you believe in. being in mass communication has so many networking opportunities. Networking is so important because when you get to know people they can help get your message out there to the world or at least help you get to that point. Not to mention Mass communication also deals with the social media world and that reaches a larger crowd of people. I know that would benefit me a lot when addressing my issue about paid maternity leave. Mass communication is a plate form to be able to exchange information through a variety of social networking. Such as newspapers, internet, radio and television etc. Having good communication skills are so important when trying to interact with people. By having mass communication as one of my minors I have gained many skills like writing effectively, problems solving and media relations as well as public speaking. Having these skills will help me reach my goal of reaching a larger audience about addressing my issue about fighting for paid maternity leave for mothers in America. Mass communication has changed the way the world communicates with each other over the years. Mass communication teaches the roles of gender, race and sexual orientation and learning about all of those things will help me better analyze what is going on in the different cultures in the world.

My last minor women studies which I believe has the biggest part in bringing awareness to making a change for women because I understand what women are going through because fighting to get paid maternity leave is so important to me and I want to see a change before I start planning my family. I feel I can be the voice for women and help bring more awareness to the many issues we all face in the work industry and take a stand to make a change. Women studies minors help give insight on the many issue’s women face daily and bring awareness to the things going on in the world right now it has taught me to stand up for what I believe in.

Women studies has history in sociology and psychology about the women society. Women studies teaches people how to analyze the sexuality and sexual orientation of others. Women studies shows the economic and political lives of women. By me having women studies as a minor I have learned the many different gender identity and how people are able to identify in more than one way. Women studies is a very diverse minor and it has so many different perspectives of the lives of many women from different cultures back grounds and religion. Women studies is known for feminist and feminist are known for standing up for women’s rights and gaining equality for women all around the world. Having women studies as a minor help gives insight of the realities of women and it shows the political sides of women in the work place and learning about this will help me reach many women around the world and because of the skills I have gained I will be successful at competing my goal.