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Lack of Paid Sick, Maternity and Vacation Leave

Sixteen weeks—Austria. Fifteen weeks—Belgium. Fourteen weeks—Sweden.

That’s the paid maternity leave for those countries. In fact, almost every industrialized country has paid maternity leave except for the United States.

Many of the respondents in a study conducted by Resume-Now were not aware that other countries had such plentiful parental leave.

Resume-Now wanted to find out if American workers felt they had enough time off for vacation, sick, and parental leave. They surveyed over 950 Americans to see what their time off was like.

The moms and dads in our study didn’t get to have a decent stretch of time to enjoy their new bundle of joy. Many even missed their baby’s milestones. All sorely lacking when compared with other countries.

Some sad findings out of the study:

• 27% of moms took just 5-6 weeks of maternity leave
• 32% of moms said they couldn’t take as much time as they wanted
• 28% of dads took 2 weeks or less of paternity leave
• 59% of the moms avoided calling in sick when feeling ill during pregnancy

Read on to hear more about the opinions and feelings of American workers who took maternity leave...