the right to take the time off, not the right to be paid for it.
Comment on They wonder why nobody wants kids anymore.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoFMLA IS a right (albeit crap compared to most of the rest of the civilized world). They just find ways to screw people out of it
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Tower@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
In addition to what everyone else has posted, FMLA also has the wonderful caveat of not coming into force until you’ve been at a job for one year. Yay…
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
FMLA? Some kind of US maternity leave?
Lucelu2@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
FMLA is for any kind of family leave (children, parents, even your own medical issues) but there are requirements on how long you are employed at a particular place and how many employees they have there. For most small businesses – they do not qualify. Larger institutions/job places do.
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
For people outside of the US, FMLA is up to three months of unpaid leave where you get the privilege of getting to keep your job and your benefits (though you continue to pay for them while not being paid).
For many American women, this is all they have access to for maternity leave. So they power through those three months then have to scrap together the cash to put their 4 month old in day care ($15 to $20k annually) while not getting paid for the quarter of the year.
Around 40 to 45% of women in the US don’t even qualify for FMLA because your employer needs to be large (50+ employees) enough and you need to have worked for them long enough to qualify (usually a year).
Blue states fill the gap with their own state run programs (still usually only three months, though you get some pay) but if you’re in a red state the choice for many women is 1) have children and enter financial ruin or 2) don’t have children.
America lags behind most advanced economies in this regard and there isn’t any sign these circumstances will get better.