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> "It is hard for the company to deal with" Shouldn't this be considered the cost of doing business? Here in Australia we have mandatory employer retirement co

by ux-app 11y ago

> "It is hard for the company to deal with" Shouldn't this be considered the cost of doing business? Here in Australia we have mandatory employer retirement contributions of 9.5%. I'm sure small business would love not having to pay this, but that is the cost of employment.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
That's a hard concept to swallow in America. Bootstraps and all that jazz.
mikekchar 11y ago
A burden is a burden, whether expected or not. The OP was opining that there was no burden because you can just hire a contractor for a year. Also, unlike pension contributions (here Japan we have to pay 7% pension and 7% health insurance!), parental leave costs are not applicable to all employees; just ones that are going to have babies. So if you have 10 employees and one of them goes on parental leave, suddenly your costs have gone up 20%. As much as this is "the cost of doing business", it's pretty hard to plan for that when you don't know the procreational schedule of your employees. Do you keep a float of capital "just in case"? Heaven help you if 2 people go on parental leave at the same time! How many start ups are going to budget for babies rather than spend that money trying to expand growth? I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is far from easy. Even worse, in countries where there is no paternal leave, this means it is a cost/risk that applies only to young women employees. I hope it goes without saying that this creates a terribly uneven playing field for women in industry. Like I said, I'm a staunch advocate of parental leave, but I don't think it is an easy situation for anyone.
- ux-app 11y ago
  You're absolutely correct that this is not a simple situation to solve. Unfortunately the US goes into collective anaphylactic shock when words like socialized <insert anything here> is mentioned. Ideally the state pays for this through taxation or via levy against large corporations. This way everyone has access, even those not fortunate enough to work at Microsoft.

by ux-app 11y ago

toomuchtodo 11y ago

That's a hard concept to swallow in America. Bootstraps and all that jazz.

mikekchar 11y ago

A burden is a burden, whether expected or not. The OP was opining that there was no burden because you can just hire a contractor for a year. Also, unlike pension contributions (here Japan we have to pay 7% pension and 7% health insurance!), parental leave costs are not applicable to all employees; just ones that are going to have babies. So if you have 10 employees and one of them goes on parental leave, suddenly your costs have gone up 20%. As much as this is "the cost of doing business", it's pretty hard to plan for that when you don't know the procreational schedule of your employees. Do you keep a float of capital "just in case"? Heaven help you if 2 people go on parental leave at the same time! How many start ups are going to budget for babies rather than spend that money trying to expand growth? I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is far from easy. Even worse, in countries where there is no paternal leave, this means it is a cost/risk that applies only to young women employees. I hope it goes without saying that this creates a terribly uneven playing field for women in industry. Like I said, I'm a staunch advocate of parental leave, but I don't think it is an easy situation for anyone.

ux-app 11y ago
You're absolutely correct that this is not a simple situation to solve. Unfortunately the US goes into collective anaphylactic shock when words like socialized <insert anything here> is mentioned. Ideally the state pays for this through taxation or via levy against large corporations. This way everyone has access, even those not fortunate enough to work at Microsoft.