| > In Germany all of that is being covered by the government insurance scheme. Ok, but you agree, don't you, that $3000 is quite different from "parents have to pay five digits worth of money just for the birth of a child"? That is off by an order of magnitude. > No such nonsense as giving birth and having to work the next day like it's common in the US. I think you should stop consuming so much media from Russia Today :) Or maybe re-consider the trustworthiness of wherever you read that. The fact is that, at the federal level, Americans may take 12 weeks (unpaid) time off work after giving birth under the FMLA, and it is prohibited to retaliate against an employee for taking that time. Additionally, the majority of Americans live in states which mandate paid time off after giving birth, (usually 8 to 12 weeks) plus additional unpaid time. California, to use the most populous state as an example, mandates 8 weeks of paid time, plus 28 weeks unpaid. New York, on the opposite side of the country, goes even farther by mandating 12 weeks paid time. Part of the reason you may be confused is that this is not always explicitly named as "maternity time". It is often called as "disability leave", and nearly all disability statutes include recovery from pregnancy as a disability. Unless you are maybe trying to argue that Europeans are legally prohibited to work the day after giving birth, you are way off base here. |