On Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, he took on an issue that sadly gets too little attention, paid family leave. While American politicians claim to love their moms and mothers in general, they sadly do little to make their lives any easier.
With Mother’s Day having just passed, we are all uniquely aware of the media extravaganza that businesses go through, tugging on our hearts to make a buck. It’s an effective way to sell your department store crap or cheap brunch, but it highlights how poorly we actually take care of mothers in this country.
As Oliver points out in his segment, only America and Papua New Guinea do not offer paid family leave. Federal law does provide for 12-weeks of time off, but there are very strict limits on that. This means that, if a woman in the United States does take time off to have a child, her job will be waiting for her when she returns, she just won’t be paid during the time that she is away.
Watch Oliver’s segment below.
