The Real Problem With Family Leave in America

A new report out by PL+US: Paid Leave for the United States examines the paid family leave policies of 60 of the top employers in the U.S. and is shedding a whole new light on the state of paid leave in American companies. But before we even get to what the policies are, PL+US points out the most pressing problem with family leave in this country – and it’s a problem we can help fix:

“Our research makes it clear that corporate America has a transparency problem when it comes to this issue, with more than half of these top employers refusing to disclose information on their policies.”

This is a real problem, and one that List Your Leave is actively working to combat. Most Americans have no idea what their employer’s family leave policy is until they need it. And after they spend months trying to decipher the complicated policies that are usually piecemeal, discriminatory and inadequate, they find themselves trapped in a situation that leaves them having to make tough decisions between quality time with their families and making ends meet.

In order for American workers to advocate for themselves and the leave they need to care for their families, they first must be informed about not only their own policy, but what else is out there. What if you could choose a job based on how much it helped you balance your work and family life? What if family leave became like vacation time and free gyms and tuition assistance – something that employers offered equally, bragged about, and explained up front in order to attract the right talent.

The PL+US report has some amazing findings that we will look at in later posts, but for now, think about how they had a hard time determining the family leave policies for just 60 of the top employers. And how hard it must be for workers to know and understand their own policies. We can all help by sharing the leave policies at our companies and how the experience of taking leave really went. We can help all Americans get smart on leave by simply listing ours.

Leave an anonymous review today. List your leave so the next report that comes out can lead with the quality of family leave policies and not the difficulty in even finding them.