![[OC] Amount of Parental Leave Employers are Mandated to Offer by U.S. State](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/6az9cct8igze1-1536x1075.png "[OC] Amount of Parental Leave Employers are Mandated to Offer by U.S. State")
Data is from Bipartisan Policy Center
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/state-paid-family-leave-laws-across-the-u-s/
Some Notes:
- Some of the dark blue states' programs are still in implementation (specifically those in Maine, Delaware, Maryland, and Minnesota).
- Some states in red have state-sponsored but voluntary parental leave programs – participation by employers is not mandatory.
- California was the first state to introduce mandatory parental leave (law became effective in 2004). New Jersey was second in 2009.
Posted by snakkerdudaniel
44 Comments
Just another good example of the hypocrisy. Don’t want women to have access to abortions, yet can’t provide anything of substance to help out parents.
Republicans, the party of “family values”.
the “values” they’re actually referring to: women under the thumb of men, running households and pumping out babies
And they wonder why the birthrate down
I love how states that want to ban abortion nationally do not have mandated time off for new mothers
So 3 months is the most you get in the US? Yikes!!!!
Are these number of weeks at 100% pay or number of weeks at any level of pay?
In Washington it’s paid for in part by withholding from all employees. So basically you’re paying for you own leave if you have kids.
Country people seem to revel in being mistreated in the US
And canada, it’s a full year. Not quite a full pay, I think it’s 60 or 70%.
And you can split between the mother and father anyway you want. It doesn’t just have to be the mother for a year. Paternity leave is a thing here.
It’s nice to live in a civilized country. The US might have the money, but we have something else…
Why aren’t people having more kids?! It’s such a mystery.
Reminds me of Superstore when Amy had to go back right after giving birth, was a wreck for obvious reasons and was hard to watch.
I have newborn, he’s 3 weeks old. I had zero parental leave but was able to take 2 of my 3 weeks of vacation per year. My company has been kind with cutting me slack my first week back but, it’s terrible. Anyone who’s ever been a parent and isn’t appalled at the state of parental leave in the us is a lunatic or an asshole that never wanted children in the first place.
I have it much better than many but it’s still heart breaking. I want to be there for my wife and I want more than anything for my son to form the same bond with me, he will with her.
As a country we need to value family waaaay more than we do. Fuck greed, fuck slave wages, fuck a ruling class whose only goal is pain.
Inaccurate– the blue states are state-provided leave laws. The state collects premiums and the leave benefit is provided by the states, not employers.
I got 8 weeks. And im a man
I’m seeing a pattern somewhat
Definitions are going to be important here. Because even if you have maternity leave “permission “, that does not mean it is fully paid. And male parental leave can be allowable, but not covered fully.
Explain to an ignorant guy, how do people take care of their newborns if the employers don’t give any leave? Do people have to quit their jobs or what?
Of course, employers are allowed to offer more. Volvo in SC gives 4 months full pay or 6 months at 70%. They also give it to fathers as well as mothers.
Once again proving a LOT people vote against their own best interest.
What the hell? Here in Canada it is 12-18 months typically.
Who is watching newborn babies while parents go to work?!
Then the government will be like “why are our birth rates so low? it doesn’t make sense!”
I had 1 day off for the birth of my twins. I asked if I could get 2 days off since I was having 2 kids. They didn’t respond
I can make some assumptions, but I’d love to see the averages of the states in red.
The red means, “We’re wholeheartedly for your family. Now get back to work.”
Straight out of the Gilead handbook.
So sad, even China has 14week full-paid parental leave.
I am in CA and self employed. I just wanted to add that CA collects an extra tax called State Disability Income tax (SDI on your W2) and the state covers part of this if you apply. It also covers disability and family leave to care for a family member, which is cool.
However that is only for W2 employees. Business owners and the self employed get nothing. There is technically a program we can “opt into” to pay tax into the program to take advantage of it, but the math doesn’t make it worth it and the lack of administrative support for the program makes it pretty much worthless.
Hilarious how this office wants more people to have nuclear families, yet will offer exactly zero incentives or opportunity to help anyone do so
Guess which states have elected officials who claim to be pro family?!
Meanwhile, birth rates are down right? Wonder if this is connected 🤔
Democrats support families. Now isn’t that counterintuitive?
Can we get this map along with more countries?
This was one of the bigger shocks we had as Canadian ex-pats living in the US.
Can someone compare these numbers with birth rates?
Informally given a week off with pay after each kid.
No paperwork, no policy. As a father it felt like a sweet deal at the time.
Now there is a corporate policy of 30 days use as you need it. Much better. It should be a national policy, as new parents really need some flexibility.
Yet another map showing why I love my fucking state.
Proud of my state. And it’s paid leave. Colorado
Oh, I’m so sorry. They genuinely don’t pay you guys enough. We pay a great deal in property taxes that go to the school system, but it never seems to go to the people teaching.
Wait, I could have gotten parental leave in NJ when we had our kids? Shit, I didn’t take any time off for my son and when my daughter was born with a scheduled c-section, my boss freaked out wondering where I was, even though I had gotten the single day off approved.
Fucking vultures.
In CO, you can totally take your 12 weeks. Doesn’t mean you’re not going to get let go when you get back.
Ugly data here 😭😭 that little 5,000 ain’t hitting when you see the other stats
conservatives really care about babies tho /s
This is an issue that I don’t understand how people aren’t just rioting in the street over.
Have you ever had a whole person come out of your body? It’s insane and takes more than 0 days to recover from. Not to mention all the insane shit that happens to your body after.
Crazy how those state have the highest education levels too. It’s almost like helping people has positive benifits. Who would have ever guessed.
Colorado resident here who used our FAMLI leave for my first kid last year and will use it again for our next this fall. I honestly don’t know how anyone could be a new parent without something like this. I was able to bond so much more with my son than I would have otherwise.
Thank you so much to every tax payer in Colorado for funding this. I’ll gladly vote to keep this around as long as possible. Can’t think of many better uses of .045% of my paycheck.