America is the only rich country without a law on paid leave for new parents
Support for changing this is growing in both parties

THE PRESIDENT’S Commission on the Status of Women was unequivocal in its recommendation: “Paid maternity leave or comparable insurance benefits should be provided for women workers.” That conclusion was reached in 1963, when John Kennedy was president, but America still has no federal policy in place to guarantee working mothers or fathers paid time off to care for their new babies. It is one of only two countries in the world, along with Papua New Guinea, that have no statutory national policy of paid maternity leave. The average member of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, offers new mothers 18 weeks of paid leave.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Looking after baby”
United States
July 20th 2019- America is the only rich country without a law on paid leave for new parents
- Fathers face higher penalties for taking parental leave than mothers do
- Low inflation means the Federal Reserve is changing whom it listens to
- Abortion laws get more attention in the culture wars
- Trump supporters need not apply
- The 2020 campaign will be more racially divisive than 2016 was

From the July 20th 2019 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
What a Christian theatre town can teach Trump’s Kennedy Centre
Anti-woke entertainment has draws and drawbacks

Why America has not passed a law to treat addiction better
Methadone can help addicts. But many are loth to make it more easily available

Donald Trump is testing more than America’s Constitution
The country’s very idea of itself is under stress
Cambridge yimbies
The home of Harvard and MIT embraces yimby-ism
The American and Russian right are aligning
MAGA men are warming to anti-liberal ideas emanating from Moscow
Did Donald Trump wilfully defy a court order?
The administration’s rushed deportation of alleged gang members seems to have crossed a line