Telecom company offers six months' paid parental leave - worldwide

[Norse]

An interesting initiative: Telenor offers employees six-month paid parental leave world wide

According to the company spokesperson, they expect long-term profit on the offer, since they get to keep employees they’ve invested in, rather than having their female employees quitting to have a family.

[chappachula]

Wiki shows a nice listing of paid parental leave, as required by law…
Almost all countries require employers to provide 3 months.
This includes Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Mongolia

The USA is, of course , the only country which does not provide any leave at all.

[Construct]

And of course, most US employees have maternity leave. Because free markets work.

[Norse]

@Construct

And of course, most US employees have maternity leave. Because free markets work.

“most” = how many? 50%? 75%? 90%? 99%?

And for how long? Six weeks? Three months? Half a year? One year?

ETA:
In Telenor’s home country, it’s 46 weeks with full pay (capped to 64k USD/year), or 56 weeks with 80% pay. AFAIK, the rest of Scandinavia has similar benefits.

[AK84]

Telenor Pakistan was voted the best place in the country to work for several years running.

[Voyager]

@Construct

And of course, most US employees have maternity leave. Because free markets work.

Wrong as usual.

From Fortune.

How much would it cost to have mandatory, paid family leave in the U.S.? The United States is the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid leave for workers who are new parents. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives workers the right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Last month President Obama reignited the debate over paid leave when he pledged to make paid family leave a top priority and used his executive power to give six weeks of paid sick leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child.

Currently, only 11 percent of American workers get paid family leave through their employers or state programs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The reason people have unpaid leave is not free enterprise, but the government. And paid leave, which is what the OP mentioned, is hardly universal - 11%. And that is probably because of the states requiring it.

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Voyager

Wrong as usual.

From Fortune.
The reason people have unpaid leave is not free enterprise, but the government. And paid leave, which is what the OP mentioned, is hardly universal - 11%. And that is probably because of the states requiring it.

To be fair, every article I found that quoted the 11% figure did so for “parental leave” which includes maternity and paternity leave. In the US paternity leave is exceeding rare, and men make up slightly more than half the US work force. I can’t find stats for paid maternity leave only, but it would be significantly higher (my guess based on the numbers quoted would be 25%). I’m certainly not saying it’s high enough, only that Construct referred specifically to “maternity leave”.

[Voyager]

@Doctor_Jackson

To be fair, every article I found that quoted the 11% figure did so for “parental leave” which includes maternity and paternity leave. In the US paternity leave is exceeding rare, and men make up slightly more than half the US work force. I can’t find stats for paid maternity leave only, but it would be significantly higher (my guess based on the numbers quoted would be 25%). I’m certainly not saying it’s high enough, only that Construct referred specifically to “maternity leave”.

Here is some data.

Among employers more broadly, a third (35 percent) of employees work for an employer offering paid maternity leave, and a fifth (20 percent) paid paternity leave, according to the FMLA 2012 Survey. According to the National Compensation Survey, only 12 percent of employees in the United States have access to paid leave for any care of family members (newborns, adopted children, or ill children or adults). - See more at: http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/maternity-paternity-and-adoption-leave-in-the-united-states-1/#sthash.5alfMrLj.dpuf

So these figures are somewhat contradictory. So, paternity leave is not all that rare, which is not surprising since maternity leave only might be considered discriminatory, and thanks to the pressure against men taking paternity leave it would be rarely used anyway. My company offers it, but I know of no man who took more than a week.

Like I said, not close to “most” - for paid anyhow. Unpaid is everyone. Theoretically anyhow.

[Norse]

@Construct

And of course, most US employees have maternity leave. Because free markets work.

@Voyager

How much would it cost to have mandatory, paid family leave in the U.S.? The United States is the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid leave for workers who are new parents. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives workers the right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Last month President Obama reignited the debate over paid leave when he pledged to make paid family leave a top priority and used his executive power to give six weeks of paid sick leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child.

Currently, only 11 percent of American workers get paid family leave through their employers or state programs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

OK, so “most” = 11%. Sounds legit. And it’s six weeks. Chalk down another score for the free market.

[Leaper]

If “free markets work,” then one would expect other countries to follow suit. Unless every single country besides the US is some kind of socialist hellhole…

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Voyager

Here is some data.
So these figures are somewhat contradictory. So, paternity leave is not all that rare, which is not surprising since maternity leave only might be considered discriminatory, and thanks to the pressure against men taking paternity leave it would be rarely used anyway. My company offers it, but I know of no man who took more than a week.

Like I said, not close to “most” - for paid anyhow. Unpaid is everyone. Theoretically anyhow.

Good find, Voyager. The numbers are not surprising, especially since over half of all employed Americans work for a small business- and 20% of those are self employed and the only employee of the company (non-employer firms).