China
The 18 million or so women who give birth in China each year can take up to 14 weeks of paid leave. It was recently bumped up from 90 days to comply with the International Labour Organization’s minimum.
The 18 million or so women who give birth in China each year can take up to 14 weeks of paid leave. It was recently bumped up from 90 days to comply with the International Labour Organization’s minimum.
This Balkan country gives moms up to one year off at full pay. So does another former Yugoslav republic, Serbia.
New madres can take 18 weeks of leave at 100 percent salary, and either parent can take an additional 40 weeks at 60 percent pay. After all, this is a nation where men and women are legally bound to share equally in household chores and the raising of children.
Mais, bien sûr, French women receive full pay for 16 weeks for their first and second babies and up to 26 weeks for any children. Plus, moms are entitled to up to three years of job-protected leave with stipends for in-home nannies, subsidized childcare and generous monthly allowances. All these goodies are widely credited with bolstering France’s birthrate as other European nations watch theirs plunge.
Ah, la sorta dolce vita. In Italy, employers are forbidden from expecting women to work during the two months before and three months after their due date, with 80 percent pay. Another six months is up for grabs — at 30 percent pay — until the child turns eight, and can be taken by either mamma or papà.
With Japan’s birthrate well below the replacement rate and academics recently announcing that the nation’s people could be extinct within a millennium, the government might think about increasing maternity leave benefits. Moms are now entitled to 14 weeks at 60 percent of pay and up to a year unpaid, to be split between parents.
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United Food and Commercial Workers Union
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