How the hell does something that is supported by 83% of the left and 71% of the right not only not exist in America, but almost exclusively does not exist in America? According to the documentary Zero Weeks, the U.S. and Papa New Guinea are the only countries that do not have a paid family leave law at the federal level. Meaning that while certain companies might offer it, they have no obligation to. As one person in the documentary states, it comes down to a “boss lottery.”

When I was considerably younger I once worked the phones for the Disability and Leave department of a large company. As such I was part of just one of multiple groups of people employees might have to call to inquire about what they qualified for, depending on whether their leave was related to an on-the-job injury, maternity leave, illness of a child or spouse, bereavement, long-term illness, short-term disability, and anything else I might not be thinking of. We had multiple departments handling the different specifics and sometimes people would get lobbed back and forth because one group’s system was different from another’s, and what we could do on our end was limited compared to what another department could handle, and they in turn could only do so much as well before passing you off, so on and so forth. READ MORE