As we approach another Mother’s Day, we think of all the special moms in our lives: Those who gave birth to their children—or adopted them. Those who got married—or didn’t. Those who worked full-time, part-time—or not at all.
There’s no such thing as the ideal or perfect mother; mothering comes in all forms and has shifted greatly over the last several generations. Yet, our national policy toward maternity leave—and toward working motherhood in general—has remained stagnant. The U.S. is the only industrialized country without a national policy mandating paid maternity leave, or any type of parental leave for that matter.
However, some business leaders are taking a cue from the president, who in this year’s State of the Union address said, “It’s time we stop treating child care as a side issue or a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is.”
We also applaud progressive employers with expansive paid leave programs. Ernst & Young, for example, provides 12 weeks paid maternity leave and six weeks paid paternity leave. Plus, the firm offers 12 days paid back-up care and a $400 reimbursement for work-related child care. Johnson & Johnson provides broad-based paid leave for parents—up to 17 weeks paid leave for moms, plus parental leave for new dads and same-sex couples.
Most companies, though, rely on a patchwork of disability benefits and the Family and Medical Leave Act to provide paid leave to working families. While FMLA is flawed, and the job-protected leave it offers is unpaid, we’re grateful that its existence allows working parents an option toward raising successful families while having successful careers. In that regard, we as benefits communicators have a responsibility to make sure FMLA is as clearly understood and easily administrated as it possibly can be.
Jennifer Benz, SVP Communications Leader, has been on the leading edge of employee benefits for more than 20 years and is an influential voice in the employee benefits industry.
