Economic, Social, and Health Benefits of Paid Maternity Leave

Introduction

While women have earned their way into the workplace and are rightly treated as equals alongside men, part of what still makes women unique is their ability to become mothers and carry a child. Mothers play an integral role in society, especially in the early days after a child is born: the mother is the nurturer, the consoler, the shelter, and the provider. The bond between a mother and her newborn forms over the first few weeks of the child's life, and this bond plays a significant role in the child's development over time. Because society is always dependent upon well-developed individuals for the sake of its own future, the benefits of maternity leave can easily be premised on this point. Paid maternity leave allows the mother to care for her newborn during a critical period while maintaining an income — something that should be viewed as both fair and well-deserved, since the mother is caring for the future of society. This paper will show how paid maternity leave offers a variety of economic, social, and health benefits for all.

Economic Benefits of Paid Maternity Leave

One of the economic benefits of paid maternity leave was identified by former President Barack Obama, who stated that paid maternity leave "could help increase the percentage of women in the work force, and help middle-class families earn stable incomes" (Miller, 2015). This benefit is real and tangible. As one American mother, Ms. Casillas, put it: "Honestly, without that income support, I wouldn't have made it" — an admission that illustrates just how necessary paid maternity leave is, especially for single mothers who have no other income stream to rely upon (Miller, 2015). Helping new mothers stay afloat financially while they oversee one of the most important responsibilities they will ever have — raising a new child — is a serious economic benefit, but it is not the only one.

Another economic benefit of paid maternity leave is that "paid leave raises the probability that mothers return to employment later, and then work more hours and earn higher wages" — a point which benefits the whole economy (Miller, 2015). The more workers there are contributing to the overall strength of the economy, the better off the nation is as a whole. Women who receive paid time off for maternity leave are more likely to return to work satisfied that they have achieved one objective with their employer's support, and more willing to return to that same employer with loyalty and renewed dedication. While paid maternity leave may represent a minor short-term burden on businesses, the long-term effect is that it makes mothers more loyal to the workplace and more likely to remain devoted, long-term employees. In short, it builds goodwill between employers and employees, which in turn ensures continuity over the long run and keeps the economy operating at full strength.

Houser and Vartanian (2012) highlight three important ways that paid maternity leave produces economic benefits:

• Women who report taking paid leave are more likely to be working 9 to 12 months after a child's birth than are those who report taking no leave at all.
• Paid family leave increases wages for women with children. Women who report leaves of 30 or more days are 54% more likely to report wage increases in the year following the child's birth than are women who take no leave at all.
• Women who return to work after a paid leave have a 39% lower likelihood of receiving public assistance and a 40% lower likelihood of food stamp receipt in the year following the child's birth, compared to those who return to work and take no leave at all.

By continuing to pay new mothers a salary during their leave, employers are essentially investing in their workers and in their own futures. They build stronger loyalty among employees, which helps reduce costly turnover rates; they increase the likelihood that workers will earn higher wages in the future, which supports broader economic growth; and they reduce the chance that workers will need to rely on welfare programs such as food stamps — programs that would otherwise burden taxpayers. By shouldering the responsibility of supporting new mothers with paid maternity leave, businesses demonstrate corporate social responsibility that promises positive economic outcomes for all stakeholders.

Social Benefits of Paid Maternity Leave

The social benefits of paid maternity leave are equally important. One of them is the opportunity it affords new mothers to bond with their child, connect with other mothers to share experiences, find mutual support, and engage in self-care — all of which help reduce the risk of postpartum depression (Miller, 2015).

Another social benefit is the positive impact paid maternity leave has on children. Wallace and Christensen (2015) report that paid maternity leave can "reduce infant mortality by as much as 10%, according to a 2011 study of 141 countries with paid leave policies." A reduction in the infant mortality rate is certainly a positive outcome for children, but that is not all: paid maternity leave also "increases the likelihood of infants getting well-baby care visits and vaccinations, with one study finding that children were 25.3% and 22.2% more likely to get their measles and polio vaccines, respectively, when their mother had access to paid maternity leave" (Wallace & Christensen, 2015). When new mothers have employers who financially support their decision to stay home with their babies for a period of time, those babies are more likely to be healthy in the long run. The reason is straightforward: when a mother can focus on her child without worrying about where the next paycheck is coming from, the needs of the child receive the attention they deserve.

Furthermore, paid maternity leave is essentially a universal policy among the industrialized world (Houser & Vartanian, 2012), and by adopting this kind of policy in the U.S., American society can be confident that it is not falling behind the social standards recognized among other developed nations. As Burtle and Bezruchka (2016) point out, "all wealthy nations other than the US have some form of legal guarantee that new parents can take paid time off to be with their child" (p. 31).

Conclusion

In conclusion, paid maternity leave offers a number of economic, social, and health benefits for mothers as well as for society as a whole. Businesses and the wider economy benefit from paid maternity leave policies, which ensure continuity in the workplace over the long run and help reduce the risk of financial instability for new families. Paid maternity leave provides social benefits — most notably by allowing new mothers to bond with their children without the immediate pressure of returning to work following delivery. It carries health benefits as well, since new mothers require time to nurture their bodies back to health, and the less rushed they feel, the more inclined they will be to get the rest they need. The stress of knowing they have only a few weeks to adjust to an entirely new life with new demands and responsibilities can be overwhelming, and paid maternity leave allows new mothers to take solace in knowing they will have the time required to adapt to these challenges.

As nearly every other wealthy country in the world recognizes the value and importance of paid maternity leave, it is time for America to do the same and make it a national right for new mothers. The more this country recognizes and appreciates the role that mothers play in the lives of their children — and, by extension, in the health of society — the more accepting the nation will be of paid maternity leave as a necessary and just policy.

References

Burtle, A., & Bezruchka, S. (2016). Population health and paid parental leave: What the United States can learn from two decades of research. Healthcare, 4(2), 30–36.

Houser, L., & Vartanian, T. (2012). Pay matters: The positive economic impacts of paid family leave for families, businesses and the public. Retrieved from http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/work-family/other/pay-matters.pdf

Miller, C. (2015). The economic benefits of paid parental leave. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/upshot/the-economic-benefits-of-paid-parental-leave.html

National Partnership for Women and Families. (2009). Fact sheet: Children benefit when parents have access to paid leave. Retrieved from

Wallace, K., & Christensen, J. (2015). The benefits of paid leave for children are real, majority of research says. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/29/health/paid-leave-benefits-to-children-research/index.html