# Fact-checking Bernie Sanders: Only 2 countries don't offer paid maternal leave? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550 "2016-08-02T14:50:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/1 "2016-08-02T14:50:41Z")
A July 28 post on Bernie Sanders’ Facebook page claims that there are only 2 countries in the world that don’t offer paid maternal leave - the United States and Papau New Guinea. It also then claims the USA is the only developed country to not offer paid maternal leave. So - if there are only 2 countries in the world that don’t offer paid maternal leave - the United States and Papau New Guinea - this means that _every other country in the world offers paid maternal leave?_ Somalia, Afghanistan, North Korea, South Sudan, offer paid maternal leave? Syria, Pakistan? Every single country in Africa offers paid maternal leave? Every country in the world other than the USA and Papau New Guinea? I am deeply skeptical. Anybody have the facts on this? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/2 "2016-08-02T15:00:08Z")
Wikipedia has a table of [parental leave laws by country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave#Variation_in_international_law), which indeed shows that all other countries require some amount of paid maternity leave. Most of the cites go to the International Labour Organizations’s report titled [Maternity and paternity at work: Law and practice across the world](http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/ilo-bookstore/order-online/books/WCMS_242615/lang--en/index.htm). ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/3 "2016-08-02T15:01:01Z")
It’s rather difficult to believe. Here is a similar claim in The Day (New London CT) from last January: The United States, Papua New Guinea and Oman do have one point in common, though: They are the world’s only countries without paid maternity leave. > **[Paid parental leave benefits us all](https://www.theday.com/editorials/20160102/paid-parental-leave-benefits-us-all/)** > > Located off the north coast of Australia, Papua New Guinea, an impoverished, mostly illiterate nation of 7.2 million people divided among isolated, primitive tribes who speak 700 different languages, ... ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/4 "2016-08-02T15:06:06Z")
Politifact rates this as [Mostly True](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/14/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-says-every-other-major-country-has-/). They point out that the claim about the US and Papua New Guinea likely comes from the UN’s International Labor Organization. According to the [ILO](http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_008009/lang--en/index.htm), Somalia, Sudan, and Afghanistan are all on the list. I don’t see North Korea there but given that it’s a communist wonderland, that’s the least suspect country of the ones you named. eta: 2nd link is from 1998, South Sudan didn’t exist then. My first link contains link to an ILO PDF that won’t load over my crappy connection, someone can verify it there. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/5 "2016-08-02T15:12:19Z")
Let’s just focus on the[OECD view](https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/PF2_1_Parental_leave_systems.pdf). > [@](#): > > On average across OECD countries, mothers are entitled to just less than 18 weeks of paid maternity leave around childbirth (table PF2.1.A and chart PF2.1.A). Almost all OECD countries offer paid maternity leaves that last at least three months – which is not surprising given that both the ILO convention on maternity leave and the current EU directive on maternity leave stipulate that mothers should have access to at least 14 weeks of maternity leave –\*\* with the United States the only country to offer no statutory entitlement to paid leave on a national basis\*\*. In some countries entitlements to paid maternity leave extend to over six months. In the United Kingdom, for example, mothers can take up to nine months paid maternity leave Bolding is mine. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/6 "2016-08-02T17:06:20Z")
Ok, so, it turns out what’s unbelievable is the United States, not Bernie Sanders. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/7 "2016-08-02T17:34:15Z")
Parental leave is required in California. How do other states do? ---
**Author:** ![TheSeaOtter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ed655f/32.png) [@TheSeaOtter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheSeaOtter)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/8 "2016-08-02T17:54:41Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Parental leave is required in California. How do other states do? The thing that’s noteworthy about California is that it requires _paid_ maternal leave. New Jersey and Rhode Island do as well, and New York is currently in the process of passing a similar requirement. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/9 "2016-08-02T18:18:44Z")
The US has the [FMLA](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_and_Medical_Leave_Act_of_1993) which has the benefit of including more family emergencies than maternity leave, but the downside of being unpaid leave. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/10 "2016-08-02T18:42:57Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The US has the [FMLA](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_and_Medical_Leave_Act_of_1993) which has the benefit of including more family emergencies than maternity leave, but the downside of being unpaid leave. The other huge downside is that it does not apply to small businesses (\<50 employees). ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/11 "2016-08-02T19:57:06Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Ok, so, it turns out what’s unbelievable is the United States, not Bernie Sanders. The USA is only one of two countries that also force citizens residing abroad (including ones who have NEVER lived in the USA) to file tax returns and pay any outstanding taxes. Which is why the number of citizens settled abroad renouncing their citizenship has reached an all-time high. The USA has not resorted to the trick Eritrea uses, of threatening to punish or physically harm the relatives of delinquent taxpayers; the USA simply make it impossible for their citizens to get bank services abroad. FYI - Canada uses the Unemployment Insurance system to pay for _parental_ leave, so it’s not a burden to employers, other than the requirement to not discriminate against parents who take the up to 1 year off. (17 weeks for the mother, 35 weeks for the two parents to divide up as they see fit.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/12 "2016-08-02T19:58:16Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The other huge downside is that it does not apply to small businesses (\<50 employees). Like a lot of American regulations for all kinds of industry or labor issues. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/13 "2016-08-02T20:17:36Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Parental leave is required in California. How do other states do? I’m not sure how widespread the establishment of semi-sovereignty is throughout the world like it is in the United States. Establishing parental leave as a nation government mandate would meet _serious_ opposition. Let the States who want this act on it themselves and the States who don’t should be left alone. Many politicians in Georgia have no idea about timber harvest practices in Washington State, why should they have a say? Who in Maine has interest that Hawai’i prints government documents in both English and Hawai’ian? Who are we to say how Hawai’i should be spelted? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/14 "2016-08-02T20:39:27Z")
The operative word there is “on a national basis”. The USA being a confederation of states what hava a significant amount of automomy, there are probably hundred of things that fall under state jurisdiction, but are regulated at the federal level in nearly every country in the world, with only a few exceptions like Germany and Australia. For example, the USA has no federal election for chief executive – maybe the only more or less democratic republic with that distinction. However, it is true that very few states have enacted maternal leave guarantees equivalent to those of most developed countries. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/15 "2016-08-02T20:55:45Z")
Most modern democracies don’t have a federal election for chief executive. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/16 "2016-08-02T20:57:55Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > The operative word there is “on a national basis”. The USA being a confederation of states what hava a significant amount of automomy, there are probably hundred of things that fall under state jurisdiction, but are regulated at the federal level in nearly every country in the world, with only a few exceptions like Germany and Australia. For example, the USA has no federal election for chief executive – maybe the only more or less democratic republic with that distinction. > > However, it is true that very few states have enacted maternal leave guarantees equivalent to those of most developed countries. Switzerland decides a lot of things on a cantonal basis (including some which in the US are national purview, such as granting visas and work permits) but it turns out that every single canton has paid maternal leave. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/17 "2016-08-03T01:11:40Z")
It’s an almost meaningless assertion. [No practice, only paper laws](https://faisalhrguy.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/maternity-benefits-under-the-bangladesh-labour-law-2006-an-analysis-with-focus-on-the-rmg-industry1/) A survey by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (2010) on ready-made garments (RMG) and construction industries showed that factories do not provide maternity leave for four months and most establishments give maternity leave only without pay. The survey exposed that female workers many times do not want to bear child because of fear of losing their job as majority end up being fired by their employers when they become pregnant, or sent on leave without pay (BILS, 2010). ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/18 "2016-08-03T01:37:32Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > It’s an almost meaningless assertion. > > [No practice, only paper laws](https://faisalhrguy.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/maternity-benefits-under-the-bangladesh-labour-law-2006-an-analysis-with-focus-on-the-rmg-industry1/) > A survey by Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (2010) on ready-made garments (RMG) and construction industries showed that factories do not provide maternity leave for four months and most establishments give maternity leave only without pay. The survey exposed that female workers many times do not want to bear child because of fear of losing their job as majority end up being fired by their employers when they become pregnant, or sent on leave without pay (BILS, 2010). I don’t think that makes it “almost meaningless”. Even if we assume that the failure to enforce is not confined to the garment and construction industries, and indeed is not confined to Bangladesh - and I’m happy to make both of these assumptions - the distinction between having social security or labour standard laws which are inconsistently enforced and having no such laws in the first place is not a meaningless one. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/19 "2016-08-03T02:03:34Z")
“We’re almost on par with Bangladesh” is not a great motto for a country that aspires to be part of the First World. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550/20 "2016-08-03T02:37:38Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > FYI - Canada uses the Unemployment Insurance system to pay for _parental_ leave, so it’s not a burden to employers, other than the requirement to not discriminate against parents who take the up to 1 year off. (17 weeks for the mother, 35 weeks for the two parents to divide up as they see fit.) If it’s like US unemployment laws though, company experience determines the rates a company pays. So if you have a lot of mothers or parents generally taking such leave, your rates will go up. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-checking-bernie-sanders-only-2-countries-dont-offer-paid-maternal-leave/761550.md?page=2)