Women and Children First? Who Should Get Paid Sick Leave

it's very case by case.. so very difficult to regulate

I was one who had to take an unpaid Medical leave from my job years ago. It was rough going, but thankfully my family helped me out finacially. I was one of the lucky ones.

We are far behind Europe in all aspects of health care. All people need paid sick time occasionally. Pregnancy and birth certainly qualify, but I was in a situation when my mother got Alzheimers and I had many decisions to make to move her to a home that could care for her -- several times I had to call into work, that I had an emergency where she was taken to the E.R., or when I was moving her -- people have EMERGENCIES and need to take care of family. All of my younger nurse friends had instances when they had a sick child and had to miss work -- we all sucked it up and came to work when we ourselves were sick, so as to save the "sick time" for the children's illnesses. The U.S. needs to reexamine what's important in its citizens' lives.

I agree that if you plan to have a child, you should plan for expenses, including taking time off from work if necessary. My husband and I agreed that I would take a break in my career to be a stay-at-home mom, because we felt that was best for our children, and we planned and budgeted accordingly.

HOWEVER, how about the unplanned child? - the child of rape, the child conceived when birth control failed, the child conceived because you couldn't afford birth control or the only pharmacy in town refused to fill the prescription? We cannot plan for every eventuality in our lives. And in all three of these situations, the mother or the parents may be so close to the edge, financially, that they cannot afford to take time off.

And if we acknowledge that the unplanned child warrants paid leave, why should the planned child not? Its parents are helping pay for the other.

I'm not arguing that this is feasible--Past Member's point about the cost to small businesses is a valid one, at least if implemented immediately. Just saying that it would benefit society, by improving the medical and financial health of families. A healthy child is more likely to grow up into a productive adult.

In the USA this should be a shame because we are supposed to be the land of oppertunity and where anyone could make something of themselves. I think we had more of that in the Old West as to now.

I did not get a paid leave. You have a baby you have to plan ahead for your own time off. Yes it'd be nice but don't think work should be forced to pay. Take vacation pay, make due like every one else.

They should get sum time of !

If someone decides to have a child or go on a trip, the employer should not have to pay that person anything because they are not at work. It is not right for the employer to have to pay money to employees when they want time off for something they want to do. Fair is only fair.

Answer right here=Schmitt and his colleagues at CEPR studied parental leave worldwide and concluded that the U.S. is at the bottom of the barrel of economically comparable countries.

I guess Steve R. and Julie B. are the only ones who are allowed to have children. What a country we would have if they keep dropping their little brats! Everyone would pay for the paid leaves, through taxes and employee benefits, just like everything else that everyone uses. Only when we're talking about the United States helping children and families, instead of dropping bombs on them, do conservative nut jobs like Steve and Julie wonder where the money is coming from. And I really thought Steve would love this, considering he is against all forms of birth control and want people to pop out kids nobody wants. Both of you fools should join a site called "Don'tCare2" and use it to disrespect other conservative automatons.