Just come to Norway. As a PhD student you're actually a full time "federal" employee with pension benefits, you're entitled to sick leave, parental leave, etc.

Just come to Norway. As a PhD student you're actually a full time "federal" employee with pension benefits, you're entitled to sick leave, parental leave, etc. You have 5 weeks of paid holidays per year. Your starting salary is $49k per year, which is decent - about the same level as a nurse or a teacher. To be clear: if you're a woman who move here with your partner for a PhD, and you get pregnant during your PhD, you will be entitled to 9 months of fully paid maternity leave, plus your planned dissertation date will get postponed by 9 months, no questions asked. You can even do this twice if you're "efficient". Kindergarten is quite cheap at around $320 per month. As a man, I had one kid before starting my PhD and the second about halfway through, then I got 10 days leave just after the birth, and 3 months leave from our daughter was 9 to 12 months. There are several bona fide unions you can join as a PhD student, you have a relatively well functioning HR system that will help quite a bit against toxic PIs. You will have annual "evaluation talks" with a professor other than your supervisor, where you can voice any concerns you might have. The PhD programme duration is 3 years, maybe some people do an additional few months, but I've never heard of someone doing more than 4. It's still hard work though, there is supposed to be blood, sweat and tears. But it should be because sciencce is hard, not because you are living in poverty or because you have to postpone starting a family until you are in your fourties. For some reason we get a lot of candidates applying from Europe and Asia, but almost nobody from North America, and I don't see why.