Paid Maternity Leave
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I don’t tend to get too involved with political discussions. I usually prefer the ostrich mentality of “stick my head in the sand and let someone else worry about it”. Plus I like to avoid conflict whenever I can so embarking on political debate kind of goes against the grain. I mean, there’ll always be someone who disagrees with your viewpoint.
However, I’m going to stick my neck out here and say I’m not a big fan of paid maternity leave.
I have 3 main reasons:
1. Somewhere along the line, someone is going to have to pay for it.
It’s either going to come out of our taxes or cause an increase in the cost of goods and services. That money has to come from somewhere! So what are we really achieving at the end of the day?
If the cost of living goes up, or our taxes do, having children is only going to become more difficult, not less.
2. Why do people need enticement to have children?
I have to question anyone who needs extra enticement to have children. Motherhood involves sacrifice. Lots of it. If you’re not willing to make it - are you really ready?
Are we going to entice the best types of people into motherhood with all the incentives we’re adding?
3. It forces people back into the workforce
I know someone who had 13 weeks paid maternity leave in the private sector. The catch? She has 12 months to get back to work or she loses her maternity leave payment. Too bad if the money is spent and she doesn’t want to go back to work.
I’m not against wormen in the workforce. I’m a big believer in personal choice. But I’m also a fan of stay at home mums and I think we really don’t need anymore arm twisting to push mums back into the workforce before they are ready.
There you have it. My opinion on paid maternity leave. I acknowledge that it’s not a clear cut “one size fits all” type of arrangement. And the lastest offering by the government seems more of a political stunt than anything. I haven’t looked into it in depth but it sounds like you have to sacrifice other payments in order to get the paid maternity leave they are offering.
I still think the old system they had in place back in the baby bonus days is the best. Many people didn’t realise that when the government first brought in the $3000 lump sum payment, it was actually a decrease in the amount parents got for their children.
The concept of the baby bonus (not the maternity payment) is that those on high incomes when they have their children get paid more over the first 5 years of their life. It’s a tax repayment system. If you paid a lot of tax before your child was born and then went on to not earn an income (or a lesser income), the government gave you some of that tax back. Seems fair to me. Those who didn’t pay a lot of tax still got $500 a year for the first 5 years of their child’s life.
Over To You
I’d love to hear your opinions on paid maternity leave. Fair? Unfair? Reasonable? Unreasonable? How do you think the government should tackle the whole “family payments” system?
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I have an opinion (I know, the shock) but I’m going to do a post tomorrow about it after the budget is released tonight.
I’m sure there’s a catch they’re not telling us. Personally this budget is going to cost us a lot….
I am so against it for so many reasons. One, like you said about who is paying for it - the government or business. If its government we will have to pay for it somewhere in our taxes. If its business, either costs will go up for goods and services or they won’t employ as many people, especially small business. So, then unemployment becomes an issue.
And for many other reasons, but like Kin said, lets wait and see what the fine print is in the Budget. I know we will be hurting after tonight too.
We don’t have paid leave here in the States. Women can take up to 12 weeks and their job is protected by law, but it’s not paid. If there is vacation time, women take that, then they can take short term disability for the remainder. There are no other bonuses for having a child, though a new dependent can be claimed as a deduction on taxes.
I’m not a mother, nor do I intend on taking maternity leave, but I do know that a lot of women here think that the maternity leave policies are very limited compared to other industrialized countries around the world. Personally, I have no opinion either way on whether the leave should be paid or not.
The cynic in me says that if women keep working then they keep paying taxes, which is what our stupid spendthrift government needs at the moment.
On the other hand, if women get 13 weeks paid leave they are less likely to put their babies in a creche after six weeks.
Kate
I’m for paid maternity leave. If most of the Westernised world can afford it, so can we. Women are forced back into the workforce by economic factors regardless of paid maternity leave or not.
Try living in Canberra, where you go to a new mothers group & discover that out of 20 women you are one of 2 not getting paid maternity leave…and the ACT govt has just increased their employees paid mat leave to 18 weeks. We can not afford this!
The Australian public has for years paid maternity leave for public servants. This was originally part of a package to compensate them for baing paid a smaller wage. This is no longer true - the Commonwealth publilc service has driven up private sector wages to unsustainable levels here. I interviewed a girl in her 2nd year at uni earning $60,000 in a public sector job - she was doing data entry!!
So, on one hand I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing as it evens the playing field a bit. However, I would have thought that the economy can’t afford it. I would prefer to see other services provided properly - disability services, health, education etc. Oh, and our aged pensioners being able to live above the poverty level. The means test currently being sprouted in the rumour mill also seems much to generous, $150,0000 for the person taking the leave.
Anyway, if you can’t afford to have children without relying on the government to support you, then you shouldn’t have them. It is a choice.
I will be watching the budget with a lot of interest as the impacts on what I do everyday could be massive. We have spent the last week trying to protect our clients from the potentials being leaked by the government.
I’m not getting into this one. There are too many issues which need to be sorted. I’m even more of an ostrich than you are.
Totally agree with you Lightening!
[...] on Lightening’s blog yesterday she posted why she’s against paid maternity [...]
it’s such a difficult issue. Like you I’m for stay at home mum’s having the choice to do so and I really don’t believe that they can come up with a solution that is going to ‘fit all’
some one, some special interest group is always going to be disatisfied with any system that gets put in place.
I’m against it.
Small to medium businesses can’t afford it. They are already struggling at the moment, this kind of thing isn’t going to help.
Like you said. Motherhood comes with many sacrifices. If you aren’t ready to make the sacrifices, then perhaps you aren’t ready for motherhood.
I am for it. Wendy’s comments sum up my feelings pretty well.
I think it makes perfect sense. Welfare pays people a living allowance while they’re looking for work. It pays them a (smaller) living allowance while they’re studying with the purpose of becoming more employable. It pays people who are too sick to work. And now it pays a new mother while she’s recovering from childbirth and unlikely to be in a fit state to work.
I don’t get how this payment ‘forces’ women back into the workforce. Generally, people work paid jobs because they need the money. Very few do it for the love of their work. If you need the money, you go back to work. If you don’t, you don’t. These payments help new mothers wait a sensible amount of time before going back to work.
Economics doesn’t always make sense without the background data. Sometimes spending money is the best investment a government can make in order to get their economy in good shape. See, I could whine about the ridiculous amount of money spent on roads in capital cities in Australia, when from my point of view it would make a lot more sense to invest in public transport infrastructure. After all, if you choose to have a car, you have to deal with the consequences, and not expect the government to improve roads for you… ya?
While i like the idea in principal , the way it will actually work worries me.
For years , i have been working in a male dominated field , and while i don’t want to sounds like a leftie , i am already discrimintated against. i worry that with paid maternity it will increase the discrimination already experinced.
I suppose my other issue is that all women should have the same access to services/payments ect, there should be no difference between the payments between SAHM and WM.
(Then again, i also don’t agree with middle class welfare)
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has taken time to respond so far. I’ve deliberately not responded to comments as I don’t want anyone to feel I don’t respect their opinion. We all come at issues like this from different angles and it’s always helpful to read various perspectives on the same issue.
Thanks again and feel free to add to this discussion.