Catherwood LibraryILR School

A report published today by the International Labor Organization revealed that the U.S. is one of just three developing or developed countries polled with no guaranteed paid maternity leave. The other two countries are Oman and Papua New Guinea. Separate polls have shown that providing maternity and paternity, combine with other policies, reduces gender inequality in the workplace. By ILO standards a woman has adequate maternity protection if she receives at least 14 weeks paid time off and a guarantee that her job will be available when she returns. By that standard more than 830 million women do not have adequate protection, and almost 80% of those live in Asia and Africa. According to the UN, only 12% of American women working in the private sector have any paid maternity leave, and even that is often for an inadequate amount of time.