The Pros And Cons Of Compensated Paternity Leave

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In current times, more and more fathers have been demanding for paid leave in order to spend some time with their newborns. This is why the topic of compensated paternity leave has been a heavily debated by the governments of countries all over the world, as not all countries give new fathers the privilege of paid leave. One thing to keep in mind is most of the cases regarding paternity leave that have been brought to the court usually include an element of gender discrimination as their basis, due to the fact that women are frequently given greater compensated maternity leave compared to men. New mothers require a leave from work after a child is born, however so do the fathers. Thus, this paper will compare the paternity leave policies of the UK and the US. Additionally, it will elaborate on a paternity leave case from each country. …show more content…

Countries around the world have different rules governing paternity leave, for example in Iceland fathers get 90 days off after the birth of their child and get paid 80% of their salary during their leave, while in Sweden a recent rule was passed allowing fathers to take 3 months of paid paternity leave. However, the US is one of the few developed countries that does not have a generous federal law about compensated paternity leave. Instead they have the Family and Medical Leave act, which states that certain employees are allowed to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year (there is an exception to this law which states that only under certain severe circumstances, the FMLA allows an eligible employee to substitute accrued paid leave for the FMLA unpaid