Number of U.S. women taking maternity leave stagnant for 22 years
US–The number of women in the United States who take maternity leave has remained stagnant for the past 22 years, despite factors that suggest it should be increasing, according to a new study.
The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that approximately 273,000 women in the United States took maternity leave on average every month between 1994 and 2015 — a number that showed no upward or downward trend during that time.
The researchers note that fewer than half of the women who took maternity leave were paid during it.
Since 1952, the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO) has called for at minimum 14 weeks of paid maternity leave for all employed women.
“The United States is one of the richest nations in the world, and we’re not even close to that,” study author Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and research scientist at The Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research, told CBS News.
Zagorsky points to a 2007 analysis that found out of 173 countries, only four lacked paid leave: Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and the United States. That same report found that 98 countries require working women to receive at least 14 weeks of paid time off when giving birth to a child.
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