A thought on Mother's Day

    In providing healthcare and other socially beneficial programs the United States often finds itself as a Third World Country.   On Mother's Day it is good to remember how backward we are in recognizing the importance of a mother's role in child development.  Here is how Parents Magazine stated it:
   "For such a world leader, the United States is surprisingly far, far behind when it comes to providing maternity leave. In fact, it's only one of three nations in the whole world that doesn't mandate paid maternity leave benefits (the others are Papua New Guinea and Swaziland). Paid leaves in other countries vary from the highest: what averages out to about 82 percent of pay for sixteen months (well over a year!) in Sweden and 100 percent of pay for a full year in Slovenia; to the low end of 50 percent pay for 12 weeks in Niger, or 30 days at 67 percent pay in Tunisia. Still, the lowest of the low is a whole lot more than we've got going on here."

   "The average new mom in America is given just three months of leave (unpaid!) and only if she works for a large enough company. The passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 1993 entitles many female workers up to 12 weeks of job-protected medical leave for birth or adoption, but this is without pay. In general, coverage for maternity leave varies state by state and can also depend on how large your company is (FMLA only applies to companies with more than 50 employees within a 75-mile radius), how long you've worked there, and how many hours you've worked in the past year (most policies require you to have worked at least 12 months and 1,250 hours)."