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Back in the day when I was an actual reporter, people used to complain to me that the only "news" we covered was "bad news"-- the Arab Oil Embargo, double digit inflation, Watergate Hearings.
It feels like Deja Vu All Over Again. For the past several weeks all I can think about its doom and gloom.
I see no reason to write
stories. With rising gas prices, tanking home prices, tainted tomatoes and then there are those pesky conversations with consultants who are telling me that work is drying up, I'm not smiling.
So it is in this rather cranky mood that I read about American businesses are "downsizing" maternity leave. There are some expenses that should just be fixed. I am firmly in the camp that maternity leave should be paid--at all levels of employment.
In other countries --do I dare go there---this isn't even a conversation because paid maternity leave is good for society. It's good for families and its ultimately good for business.In some countries maternity leave is funded through a cooperation between the government, business and employees to take all the burden off the small business owner. There are creative solutions that do not include reducing these benefits.
But alas and alack, that seems to be the way American business is going. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, in a piece called Downsizing Maternity Leave: Employers Cut Pay, Time Off Sue Shellenbarger reports,
Employers are cutting back on post-childbirth pay for mothers and offering shorter leaves, on average, for both moms and dads, compared with a decade ago. This comes despite research showing attentive nurturing has particular developmental power in a baby's first year, and that longer leaves can ease postpartum depression in some mothers. The pattern heightens the need for parents to plan carefully for time off post-childbirth.
Michelle Goodman, who blogs at Nine To Thrive, responded to that piece with Honey, they shrunk my maternity leave!
I don't have any kids of my own, unless you count this guy, but I watched with great curiosity as a close friend recently had her first kid at 40. Both she and her husband work full time, and while the non-profit agency she works for gave her 16 weeks' maternity leave, it was mainly on her dime.
Yesterday, Wall Street Journal Work & Family columnist Sue Shellenbarger wrote about how employers are "downsizing" both the length of and compensation for maternity leave, in an effort to boost the bottom line. Blame the rising cost of disability, which is largely how employers compensate moms on maternity leave, Shellenbarger notes.
To offset three, four, and sometimes six or more months of unpaid maternity leave, Shellenbarger writes, expecting parents rely on mommy-to-be's sick days and vacation days, as well as loans and credit cards. I agree with Shellenbarger that going into debt before you've even started the college fund is a bad idea, and that buckling down and saving as much extra cash as you can is a far better option. (However, I sincerely doubt that having to forego "new cars, big house, and pricey Jimmy Choo shoes" like one expecting mom she interviewed is a universal problem; we should all be so lucky to have those be our "tough cuts.")
Jennifer Merritt who writes The Juggle - a WSJ blog piggybacks on Sue Schellenbarger's article with a look at a growing trend- people taking part time jobs to finance their maternity leave.
According to the column, “Only 16% of employers offer full pay for childbirth leave, down from 27% in 1998, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,100 employers by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute.” The column also says that 23% of parents used credit cards or loans to finance leave, according to a recent online survey.A friend of mine, another New Yorker, recently told me that she was taking on 20 hours a month of freelance work, on top of her full-time job, so that she would have money saved for a longer maternity leave for her yet-to-be conceived second child. Her company offers three weeks of fully-paid leave and the next two-to-four weeks at half-pay. After
