Pay rate and parental leave are very different things though. I didn’t say I hadn’t been on minimum wage, I said I’ve been in full time employment. A significant portion of that time was at it barely above minimum wage of the time and lower than my states minimum wage is today. I’m asking about parental leave, not wages.
Dasus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
In this context, no, they’re both labour protection laws. Do you know why minimum wage exists? Because without it, most bosses would pay even less.
Perhaps you’ve been lucky and been in jobs in which you’ve gotten above the minimum. Which should be expected after working for more than two decades. Why would you think that matters? Do you not think that every mother (and actually parent in general) should have the right to have paid leave for months? So that only the rich with free time get to procreate and anyone working a menial job literally can’t if they want to make rent ?
I hope you realise that most companies do the bare legally required minimum and a lot don’t even do that, breaking the (already weak) labour laws the US has, and usually without consequence.
invertedspear@lemm.ee 2 months ago
So in this context what’s really being said is not that there is no parental leave, but that there is no workers protection of parental leave. Thinking of it this way helps. I wish this was more explicitly stated as I tend to be too literal about things.
Dasus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No, it’s pretty explicit.
Just like you’d say “there’s no minimum wage” in a country with no minimum wage, even if a large portion are getting fair pay.
The US and some island micronations (with no offense to them not the most highly developed countries) are the only ones who don’t ensure parental leave.
Are you genuinely pretending you don’t understand that there are thousands of people in the US who’d have kids right now if they weren’t afraid of becoming homeless if they have to take time off work / quit, since there’s no required pay?
You’re genuinely ignoring the issue. Saying it’s not a problem. Because it’s not a problem for you. This is what causes the problems in the world. Lack of empathy.
invertedspear@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Please take it down a notch, because I’m very much not saying it’s not a problem, nor am I ignoring the issue. I am trying to improve my understanding of people’s situations that are not my own.
I disagree on explicitness of the statement. Saying the US does not have maternity leave is not the same, at least by my understanding, as saying “x has no minimum wage” it’s would be more like saying “x has no wage”. Taking the phrase literally, anyway, and I apparently have a tendency to be over-literal.
And I’m not pretending anything. I know people are choosing not to have kids due to the lack of economic security. But I’ve always thought that extends well beyond what parental leave would help with. Kids are expensive and not just in year one. Even if one is guaranteed steady income in year one, it would still be a question of how assured their income will be for an indefinite amount of time.