Legislation Introduced To Provide Paid Maternity Leave For U.S. Senate Employees
Last week I posted an article on Washington Post Columnist Examining Maternity Leave Policies Of Large Corporations. The U.S. currently offers pregnant moms 12 week UNPAID maternity leave which has left it in the bottom 5 of out of 168 countries.
This week it was announced that Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska introduced legislation to provide 8 weeks of paid maternity leave for female senate employees. In that legislation he also suggested that dads receive 1 week of paid leave.
The legislation would amend the Congressional Accountability Act, which follows FMLA guidelines. To qualify, employees would have to work one year in a Senate office, including at least 1,250 hours of employment during the year prior to the leave (Brotherton, Roll Call, 3/20). Adoptive and foster parents would be entitled to one week of paid leave after the placement of a child in their homes (S 880 text, 3/14). The bill would apply to employees of the Government Accountability Office and the Library of Congress but will not apply to the House. The measure is similar to legislation (S 80) Stevens introduced in January that would provide paid leave for executive branch employees, Roll Call reports. Both bills also provide parents eight hours of paid leave to take a child to a physician appointment, to meet with a child's teacher or attend a school function (Roll Call, 3/20).
What I can't figure out is, why the senate employees deserve 8 Weeks of paid maternity leave and the rest of the country, who pays the Senate's salary, does not. This guy has a lot of nerve introducing a bill that does not benefit the working moms and dads of the rest of the country.
Related Articles:
Maternity Leave
France's Baby Boom
Comments