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HAVING A BABY? PUT IT IN WRITING.
That's one of the lessons in Sue Shellenbarger's latest Wall Street Journal column, which reports that pregnancy bias complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rose 14 percent last year to 5,587, a 40 percent increase from a decade ago. One woman in the publishing industry was fired while she was pregnant, supposedly for poor performance, yet those issues had never come up prior to her pregnancy. She wanted legal redress, but couldn't prove in writing that her bosses actually knew she was expecting. So consider sharing your big news over email. Shallenbarger also writes that many American women, until they get pregnant, have no idea that they are entitled to no paid leave under current law. Indeed, a study from Harvard University last year found that of 168 nations worldwide, the United States is one of only four whose government doesn't require employers to provide paid maternity leave. The others are Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland. --Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (6)
And, it's impossible to drum up support for the mommies when the rest of the American workforce is entitled to, well, absolutely nothing.
Which eludes some people.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 27, 2008 1:36 PM
This isn't just blue-collar workers - my wife is a physician and gets no paid maternity leave. They're having her go on short-term disability and use all her vacation.
Posted by: dub | March 27, 2008 2:35 PM
Yep, that's the U.S. of A., leading the world, as always, in its treatment of workers.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | March 27, 2008 4:09 PM
My goddaughter went to work at nursery school at 6 weeks. She ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. By the time she was 2, whenever a doctor would come in the room, she'd stick out her arm.
That's a *good* deal.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 27, 2008 4:17 PM
An American friend who lives in Britain now - another PhD biologist lost to the States - was talking over Easter about planning her maternity leave (six months paid). The other trouble she was facing is that employers face sanctions if a new mother returns to work within two weeks of a birth. She was trying to figure out what that meant in terms of her lab work. Interesting problem to have.
Posted by: Mo | March 27, 2008 7:00 PM
Correction--reading the article you linked, there are actually 5 countries that don't require paid maternity leave. The four you listed and Australia.
Posted by: Doug T | March 28, 2008 10:01 AM