Americans didn't get rich by goofing off. They don't call it the "land of productivity" for nothing.
"Land of the Free, Home of the Brave" Yes, but not productivity.
My cousin got a whole 7 days of maternity leave without pay when each of her kids were born - the law says you can have up to 12 weeks in one year and the company has to keep your position for you but they don't have to pay you. The sad thing is, the law refers to pregnancy as a disability! The time you take off is called "Pregnancy Disability Leave". She had to pump breast milk early in the morning and on her lunch break so someone else could feed them while she worked during the day. I couldn't believe when I first heard it. Her husband took steady nights in order to have one of them with the baby at all times. Talk about stress.
In Romania new mothers get up to 2 years at 75% of your 12 months average income to a maximum amount (there is a monetary incentive to take only one year in the form of an increased maximum amount plus a small monthly bonus for the first year back) with the first 42 days being mandatory to allow for parental bonding. The father gets a month off too if desired.
Wow! Talk about a law of unintended consequences! As an employer, this kind of legislation would definitely cause a serious wage disparity. If I had a young man and a young woman both of equal capabilities applying for the same position, based on this legislation, I would certainly be encouraged to hire the man, and may even be willing to offer him a little more in starting pay. Plain and simply the long term costs of employing the man would be lower, and he could therefore likely negotiate a higher salary and faster promotion through the ranks. It would be irresponsible for me to do otherwise. My responsibility is to my total staff, my customers and my investors. None of them get any advantage from me willingly signing up to pay people to reproduce and not come to work!In Romania new mothers get up to 2 years at 75% of your 12 months average income to a maximum amount (there is a monetary incentive to take only one year in the form of an increased maximum amount plus a small monthly bonus for the first year back) with the first 42 days being mandatory to allow for parental bonding. The father gets a month off too if desired.
Now the root of the relationship between employees & employers is a negotiation. The employee is selling their labor, skills, and reliability and the employer is looking to get the highest value employees with the highest retention rate possible at a reasonable and justifiable cost. Any time government imposes themselves into these negotiations it has consequences for both parties. If government makes it less profitable to hire young women, obviously less young women will be employed and those that are will make less. This is the same reason forced minimum wages achieve the opposite of their intended result. At first, there is a reduction in the number of minimum wage jobs available. If you can't afford to hire low skill workers for a low skill job, then you find other ways to get that job done, whether that be by automation or by dividing up the workload between your existing staff. (Therefore, the true "minimum wage" is and always has been $0) But over time, as the company grows or as higher paid tenured staff leaves or ages out, new employees will inevitably be hired at the legal minimum wage, but chances for advancement beyond that minimum wage will be greatly reduced as it will require more minimum wage workers to achieve the same production at a profitable overall rate. So the immediate result is to suppress employment, and the long term result is to suppress wages.
That's why we are called the Land of the Free, because we are Free to negotiate our own way through life. Government cannot create wealth, they can only suppress it. Therefore, government encroachment on our Freedoms is antithetical to our productivity as well as our freedom.
Happy Independence Day to all! 250 years ago a rag-tag bunch of farmers, tradesmen, & pioneers rose up against the trained soldiers and paid mercenaries of an oppressive foreign crown. They put their lives and their fortunes on the line to fight for the basic freedoms of Life, Liberty, & Pursuit of Happiness! They won against all odds, a way of life we enjoy to this day. This is what we Celebrate.
