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Comment by foldor | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one disgusted that women were only being given 10 weeks (Now reduced to 6, with 6 additional weeks for medical reasons) in the first place? This is one of the many workers rights areas that the US is far behind the rest of the modern world.

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What's more disgusting is the US has no law regarding paid parental leave[1]. Nearly every other country in the world does. If your company is giving you paid parental leave in the US, it's actually a nice benefit!

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave

> What's more disgusting is the US has no law regarding paid parental leave[1]. Nearly every other country in the world does. If your company is giving you paid parental leave in the US, it's actually a nice benefit!

This is somewhat true, and somewhat misleading: the US national government has a more limited role than many other national governments, with much that would be done by national governments in other nations being done by state governments in the US. Several US States -- perhaps most relevant to HN, given the tech industry focus, California is among them -- do have paid parental leave requirements (whether its directly employer paid or paid through disability insurance.)

I think we read that line differently. My understanding was that biological mothers were given the standard 6 + an extra 6 + more if needed. They actually come out a bit ahead here, but it's still only 3 months.

   The company’s current policy — which went into effect this
   year — gives six weeks of paid caregiving leave to all new
   parents. Biological mothers receive another six weeks of
   leave, and more if they have additional medical needs.

Quoted so people know what we're referring to. The sentence on biological mothers describes two things. The extra six weeks for being the biological mother, and additional time as needed (with some limits, but probably covered under insurance at this point) for medical conditions.

For comparison, Norwegian employees have the right to take in total (both parents combined) 49 weeks paid parental leave at 100% of their salary, or 59 weeks at 80% of their salary. For heterosexual couples, the father is required to take 10 weeks leave and the mother is required to take 9 weeks leave.

Why the difference for what mothers are required to take? Is it assumed that they're already taking a week for the delivery and initial recovery that isn't counted against the total?

I don't know the reasoning behind the rules. I think it's safe to say that almost no couples distribute their parental leave so that the biological mother has less than 10 weeks leave, and few have significantly less leave for the mother than the father.

It's probably just an artifact of some sort; it has no practical significance. I'm pretty sure that the 49/59 weeks include delivery though.

Clearly.

why does change always have to come with conflict on this side of the pond? It seems like the governments of EU members are more proactive then reactive when it comes to employee rights.

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