New parents deserve paid leave

The country is taking baby steps toward helping new parents the way that they should, after San Francisco’s new law requiring businesses to guarantee fully paid leave for new mothers and fathers for six weeks. The ordinance goes into effect Jan. 1, 2017.

While California does have better conditions than most states, giving new parents 55 percent paid leave for six weeks, San Francisco is the first city to require fully paid leave.

The United States is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee paid leave, falling far behind South Korea, Hungary and the United Kingdom. Claiming to be a world leader, the country is definitely not leading in its benefits for new parents trying to raise their children.

Rhode Island, California and New Jersey are the only states to mandate paid leave, however none at full pay. The remaining 47 states do not require any paid leave after having a child, forcing parents out of the home before their children are ready, or forcing working parents to quit their job to raise their children.

Parents should not have to choose between putting food on the table and bonding with their newborn. By putting this difficult decision in front of parents, society is creating a culture that careers are more important than family life. San Francisco has given a great opportunity to parents to be able to take care of their family and settle into the new lifestyle of having a child while not having to worry about financial stability.

“When you do have good, paid parental leave, worker productivity goes up. It’s good for the employer, it’s good for the parents and it’s good for the child,” Scott Weiner on the San Francisco said.

Mandated paid leave needs to be available nationwide, giving parents across the country opportunity to raise their children and not have to give up their careers.

While this may be a big leap for San Francisco, putting it far ahead of the rest of the country, the United States remains far behind the rest of the world, and it is time we catch up.

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Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

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