News Item

U.S. Now Only Industrialized Nation Without Mandatory Paid Parental Leave
By Rachel Kaufman on Jun 17, 2010 04:46 PM

Australia just passed a law that guarantees 18 weeks of paid leave for parents, meaning that the United States is now the only industrialized nation without paid parental leave, reports NPR.

Of course, there are other countries that don't offer this benefit: there's no paid leave in Lesotho, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland.

According to NPR's chart, even Mongolia and Azerbaijan have better maternity leave policies than the USA.

Of course, certain companies offer maternity or family leave as a benefit, despite not being required to by law. The most common, according to a survey from the Institute of Women's Policy Research, is six weeks offered, or a third of what Australia's just mandated.