Introduction

The United States (US) stands out as the only country highlighted in this book, and one among very few countries in the world, that does not offer a statutory entitlement to paid Maternity Leave (ILO, 2014). Such leave as exists to care for newborn or recently adopted children is most commonly labelled ‘Family Leave’, and covers caring for family members (for example, child, spouse, parent) who are ill, as well as newborns; the US may be exceptional in combining these two types of leave into one measure. Furthermore, this leave at the national and state level refers to individual employees rather than mothers or fathers; hence, there is little or no reference to ‘Maternity’ or ‘Paternity’ Leave.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013), 85 per cent of all American workers had access to unpaid Family Leave, mainly through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). However, the same report shows that only 12 per cent of workers had access to paid Family Leave, mainly through employer policies; this has increased slightly in the last few years, but as of 2016, only 14 per cent of civilian workers in the US had access to paid Family Leave (Desilver, 2017). The same is true when it comes to paid Maternity Leave. According to a recent survey of a national sample of working mothers, only 41 per cent received paid leave, and the average amount of paid leave was just 3.3 weeks at 31 per cent of wages (Shepherd-Banigan and Bell, 2014). How can this be? Why is there no paid leave at the national level? What has happened at the state and local level? Have employers stepped in to fill the need for paid leave? Will we ever see the US adopt paid Parental Leave?

This chapter attempts to address these questions. It focuses on leave policy in the US, namely the absence of paid statutory leave for parents at the national level and efforts to fill the gap at the state and local levels. While there is no federal paid Maternity, Paternity or Parental Leave, six states (of 50) have passed legislation for paid Parental Leave, and others have used short-term disability leave to offer paid Maternity Leave.