1. The country with the highest fertility rate is India which stands at 2.45bpw, followed by Indonesia at 2.18bpw. The country with the lowest fertility rate is South Korea at 1.2bpw. The fertility rate of the US is 1.87bpw, which is almost the same rate with Australia and China. With regards to women’s labor force participation, the country with the highest percentage is North Korea at 72%, followed by Thailand at 64%. The country with the lowest women’s labor force participation is India at 24%. For the US, the participation of women in the labor force is at 56% which means that there is almost an equal number of both men and women in the labor force.
2. The country which has the highest number of days in paid maternity leave is Australia. The country which has the lowest number of days of paid maternity leave is Thailand. In the US, they do not have any paid maternity leave, which is even worse.
3. The country which has the highest unpaid maternity leave is Australia. Japan, Indonesia and China do not have unpaid maternity leave. Among the countries which have unpaid maternity leave, South Korea has the lowest unpaid maternity leave at 30 days. On the other hand, the US has 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave.
4. The country which has the highest number of days of paternity paid leave is in Australia at 18 weeks. The country which has the lowest number of paternity paid leave is Indonesia at two days. However, North Korea, New Zealand and the US do not have paid paternity leaves. Moreover, Japan, North Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, China and India do not even have paternity unpaid leaves. The US, on the other hand has 12 weeks of unpaid paternity leave.
5. For both the maternity and paternity leaves, the source of funding which seems reasonable is a combination of social insurance and employer-funded funding. This can also be supplemented by the employees’ payroll deduction. In this way, there is no burden placed on the government. The source of funding most appropriate for the US government is the social insurance funding.
6. As can be observed from the data presented on Asian countries, it can be surmised that the US is lagging behind in family such as paid maternity and paternity leaves. Since the US is considered a high-income country, it is expected that it will lead other countries in terms of providing family-oriented work benefits. However, this is not the case. As an example, the US does not offer any kind of paid maternity leave. Also, the US does not guarantee paid leave for new fathers. The inability of the US to ensure these leaves for their workers make it in the company of third world countries such as Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.
Based on the observations above, there are several recommendations for policy changes which can be adopted by the US. First, the US should enact a national legislation which will guarantee the paid maternity leave for new mothers for a period of at least 60 days. The second recommendation is for the US to enact a law which will ensure that new fathers can avail of a paid paternity leave for a period of at least one week. The third policy recommendation is for the US government to provide equal access for paid family leaves for both men and women.
Works Cited
Amble, Brian. US way behind on family-friendly policies. 2 February 2007. Web. 20 March 2016.
Farrell, Jane. The United States Is falling behind in paid leave policies. 5 February 2013. Web. 20 March 2016.
Rikleen, Lauren Stiller. The U.S. Is lagging behind other countries when it comes to work-life balance. 15 March 2012. Web. 20 March 2016.
