A push to provide parental leave to America's workforce is mounting. Although some large companies such as Netflix and Google provide generous paid parental leaves, a large majority of employees in the United States are still inadequately provided with such leaves.
Some states such as New York and San Francisco are also offering paid family leaves, but most are not. Thankfully, the situation is starting to change.
"Paid family leave has been growing much quicker among large businesses than smaller businesses, and for those with high wages rather than low wages," said Ben Gitis, American Action Forum director of labor market policy.
"I would expect (more) larger businesses and big tech companies to continue this trend, while the smaller businesses and the ones that may lack resources are showing no big signs of growth," he added.
The current situation on parental leave has improved a lot compared to what it was in 2014. At that time, the Labor Secretary, Tom Perez said that the U.S. record on paid parental leave was dismal. He encouraged the government to take the lead.
In a speech at that time, Perez argued for a nationwide paid leave law. He noted that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation which has no paid maternity or paternity leave mandate.
Since then, things are going brighter for workers with families to support. Last March, a report released by the AAF revealed that in 2015, 12 percent of employees in the private sector were offered paid family leave. This is an increase of 2 percentage points (20 percent) compared to the 10 percent rate reported in 2010.
This represented a modest progress which didn't really affect low wage workers. About 23 percent of top wage earners enjoyed paid family leave and only 5 percent of low wage earners were provided the benefit.
These figures show that currently, the type of employment determines if the employee will be given paid family leave.
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