As part of our ongoing coverage of paid leave, we’re rounding up the most important news from the week. Here’s what you need to know about paid leave, working parents, and child care in the United States and abroad.
Obama gives 300,000 workers paid sick leave. The president spent Labor Day signing an executive order requiring federal contractors to offer their employees seven days of paid sick leave a year.
Hilton hotels expanded paid leave—including for its low-paid workers. New mothers will get ten weeks off, and fathers will get two. And unlike at Netflix and Adobe, 75 percent of the people affected by Hilton’s policy are hourly workers: housekeeping, food service, customer service.
America’s not totally alone—most nations make it hard for women to work. That’s the finding of a new World Bank report surveying the laws of 173 countries. Unlike French women, at least we’re not prohibited from a job that might require lifting more than 50 pounds.
Saudi women are now entitled to ten more weeks of fully paid maternity leave than most women in the U.S. Saudi Arabia's new law also requires three days of paternity leave, according to Saudi newspaper Arab News. Of course, women in Saudi Arabia are still under some of the most restrictive laws in the world.
In Israel, fathers are just as stressed about work-life balance as mothers. Working parents of both genders experience similar anxiety about juggling work and family responsibilities, according to a study by sociologists at Bar-Ilan University.
Hillary laid out specifics of her plan for working families. In a campaign speech in Columbus, Ohio, Clinton proposed three months of paid leave for new parents.