Its about time

[MummyDuck]

Cost of paid paternity leave investigated

Its about time this happened!!

What annoys me is that MSN are running a poll on it and presently:

21514 People say yes to being offered paid parental leave
and still.....

16450 say no!

I would love to see what everyone's reasoning for this is though.

[Kazbah]

My hubby & I work for the same (very large) company.

If my career works out the way it should, then for the next bub ideally I'd be going back to work after the 6 weeks and he'd stay at home for the year. But our company doesn't allow that. Even if I was only paid for the sick leave, he isn't entitled to the 24 weeks half-pay unless I'm incapacitated. It sux as it currently is.

To be honest, re the funding of it all, if we were taxed *specifically* for maternity leave (similar to HECS repayments) then that'd be grand. Imagine, electing to pay extra tax from age 16 (or whatever) and that would be returned to you as maternity / paternity pay OR as a lump sum! That'd rock!

[Astrid]

I have tried nutting out different ways for employers to fund paid maternity and it is hard to do. It means more administration and more expense, not so bad for large business, but not great for small business, who I feel is overburdened as it is. So something that is federally funded seems fairer and makes more sense. Will quite interested to see how they work it out.

[Jayney]

In Canada we have up to 60% paid leave for 1 year. The Government pays out of the same fund as unemployment benefits. The mom has 12 weeks of maternity leave and the rest is parenting leave and either mom or dad can take that so long as the weeks add up to a total of 1 year. It is wonderful. Giving kids and families time to bond and a good start I am sure it saves money in the long run.

Although I don't qualify this time as I haven't worked since #2 was born.

[shellbell]

If the goal is to ensure that women return to the workforce I don't think any system will work properly unless it allows you to be paid your current wage - I have read the bill (being a bit of a nerd) that was previously put forward and 'revamped' at the end of last year and it proposes to pay women minimum wage. As I am our primary income earner that would be completely useless to us.

I do agree however that if the employer is required to pay the leave they will simply stop hiring women of child bearing ages.

What I find curious is the strong public resistance to govt funded mat leave... given that all state and federal empoyees are currently entitled to 12 weeks leave at full pay - tax payers are already funding it - why not make it fair for those of us that don't work for the government... anyway, just my thoughts....

[satya]

Australia is one of the few nations that don't provide an across the board paid maternity leave scheme - I know one of the others is the US.