March 24, 2025
By Rachel Schnepf
Maternity leave and paternity leave is one of those topics that have been a thorn in the side of the United States. The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t have a mandated paid time off for mothers and fathers. It has made changes over the last decade or so by passing the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 which provides up to twelve weeks of time off for the mother and the father to be taken within the first twelve months of the baby’s life. The difference between this law, and those from around the world is the difference in compensation.
Proponents for paid maternity leave say that if the U.S. provided at least a portion of pay during that time off, it would help “provide critical support for workers and their families, employers and communities- as well as the economy at large.”
With that mindset, it would be obvious that if the U.S. had paid maternity/paternity leave, more people would feel capable of having larger families.
But maybe that isn’t accurate. If we look at other countries that have generous family care benefits, we should be able to see a stark difference in birth rate compared to the U.S.
Japan is ranked 16th in lowest birth rate. The average number of children per woman is 1.4, yet they have paid maternity and paternity leave. According to their laws, mothers and fathers are able to take up to 158 working days, either together or separately, for the first year of a child’s life. They do not get full paid leave, but get ⅔ of their salary during their time off.
Finland is ranked 78th in lowest birth rate. The average number of children per woman is 1.74. They too have liberal laws set in place to allow mothers and fathers to take time off to care and bond with their children. They provide paid time off up to 320 working days which can be divided between the parents at 160 days each. Their compensation is approximately 70% of their normal income.
The United States is 95th in lowest birth rate with an average of 1.84 children per mother. So the question to be raised is, even though countries like Japan and Finland have fairly exceptional coverage for families compared to the United States, then why does the U.S. have a higher fertility rate?
Perhaps it comes down to personal values and putting families and having children in a more positive light. A Pew Research study was done in 2024 in the United States that wanted to find out the reasons people were not having children. I will focus on the part of the study that was directed towards over 700- 18 to 49 year old adults who all claimed to not want children. Of those participants, the number one reason they didn’t want children is that they just didn’t want to in general, no other explanation. The second highest reason was because they wanted to focus on other things which included: hobbies, their career, saving more money, and having the financial stability to afford things they wanted.
An article was made by the Financial Times that delved into the reasons that the Nordic countries are declining in fertility rates. According to a demographer named Anna Rotkirch, she said:
“In most societies, having children was a cornerstone of adulthood. Now it’s something you have if you already have everything else. It becomes the capstone.”
From her standpoint, she believes people put it off or don’t have children until they have accomplished everything they feel they need to in order to have children. Finishing college, getting up the corporate ladder and having a high paying job, perhaps traveling, and buying nice things. This falls in line with the Pew Research study as well as there are other things in life that young adults want to do instead of having children.
Going back to the discussion of maternity and paternity leave making it easier on families to have children: it doesn’t really matter. Of course they are added benefits and make having children easier on families emotionally as well as financially. However, unless the mindset of the population and the redirection of what is important to them is altered, those laws won’t matter much except to a few. The population decline, in a good portion of the world, will also continue to plummet putting some of the largest countries in the world below the level of population sustainability. The United States still has much it can do to campaign for the positive aspects of having a family, otherwise, we too will fall below the replacement rate.
