Here's an unsettling fact: The percentage of women in the United States who are either working or want to be working has been declining since 2007. While this drop is relatively small (65.9 percent to 62.8 percent), it is also adding to the decrease in overall labor force participation, which is viewed by policy makers as a snag to economic recovery. So what can help?
According to a report published in July by the Council of Economic Advisers, an agency within the Executive Office of the President charged with offering the president objective economic advice, one of the most effective courses of action would be to federally mandate paid maternity leave.
"When people have paid leave, it just gives them a path back to work, whereas when they drop out of the labor force and stop working in order to take a leave with a young child, they come back slower," Betsey Stevenson, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told The New York Times.
Changes in the past several decades — like the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act (which banned employers from paying less based on an employee's sex), earned-income tax credits and the birth control pill — have all helped women in the U.S. enter the workforce. However since 2007, workforce participation by women has dropped, even though women account for 60 percent of people earning a college bachelor's degree these days.
So what's to blame?
Many women don't get paid time off after having a baby, which makes staying in the workforce challenging if not impossible. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, only 59 percent of U.S. workers say their employers offer them paid leave (that's for everything from the birth of a child to a vacation) — with only 11 percent of private companies offering employees paid family leave that's meant for childbirth, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And for many (if not most) employees, paid leave caps off at a mere two to three weeks — far less than the 12 weeks suggested by doctors to help ensure the health of mom and baby. Otherwise, parents have to rely on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal law that requires employers who meet certain criteria (which, by some estimates, doesn't apply to 40 percent of U.S. companies) to allow their male and female employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.
And that's just accounting for the weeks following the birth of a child. Although it's not mentioned in the report, research does show that once a mom decides to return to work, daycare or a nanny can be prohibitively expensive, costing some families up to nearly 40 percent of their family income, according to Census Bureau data. And costs have only been rising: According to research by the Census Bureau, average weekly child care expenses for families with working mothers who paid for child care rose more than 70 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars over the past three decades, from $87 in 1985 to $148 in 2011.
"It's sort of a no-brainer to think about it: If you don't have child care, you're going to have fewer women in the labor force," said Stevenson.
Many other developed countries have implemented policies that help out working parents, such as paid family leave, subsidized child care and support for part-time work. The governments of countries like Demark and Venezuela guarantee moms 18 weeks of maternity leave. And in France, high-quality, state-run child care can cost as little as 0.26 euros an hour (35 cents an hour or $14 a week). The result? Eighty percent of French moms work.
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn't guarantee some type of paid time off for employees, despite ample evidence that paid leave policies benefit workers, businesses and the economy. A growing number of studies like this seem to be acknowledging that we need to catch up with other developed nations. Policymakers are aware there's a problem. Now, they just need to fix it.
What do you think about having federally-mandated paid maternity leave? What about state-subsidized child care? Share below in the comments section!
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