Paid maternity leave—a contentious issue in the United States—is available for mothers (and sometimes fathers) in developed countries around the world.
A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on its member states compares and contrasts the parental leave statutes of the world’s most developed nations.
It isn’t, however, as simple as the birds and the bees.
Nations have written into their maternity leave statues a seemingly endless number of conditions and stipulations. It is not just a matter of weeks allocated and amount paid.
Australia, for example, doesn’t provide maternity leave per se. Rather, maternity entitlements are part of the country’s greater parental leave statues. According to the OECD, the 6 weeks of leave prior to birth are considered maternity leave. The maximum payout of $494.67 per week equals about 42 percent of an average wage for a mother. This means that mothers are only paid in full for 2.5 weeks of absence, once averaged out.
