GRSJ224/Calforniaparentalleave

Paternity Leave Discrimination In California

California Parental Leave Laws: Fatherhood in the Workplace

Historically, the United States has lagged behind other developed and developing countries when it came to paid and unpaid parental and family leave from work after the birth of a child.

In most countries, a female mother is provided more time and benefits in maternity leave than a male father is provided in paternity leave. In the United States, it is illegal to discriminate fathers for requesting or taking paternity leave.

2018 California Parental Leave

Each state within the United States is responsible for their own parental and family leave laws. In California now, there are three main laws that are in state to help fathers protect their rights to paternity leave after the birth or adoption of a new child. (If any of said three are broken or violated by an employer, that male employee is entitled to protect himself with legal action. These three laws are the FMLA, the CFRA, and the New Parent Leave Act.

The FMLA is the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives men the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid paternity leave. This act was passed under the Clinton administration in 1993.

The CFRA is the California Family Rights Act, passed just under a year ago in January of 2018. This act is essentially just the corresponding state counterpart to the FMLA previously mentioned.

Finally, the New Parent Leave Act corresponds to the other two parental leave acts currently in place, yet just deals with employees of smaller, privately owned, corporations with less staff.

Family Leave Policies in the U.S.

“It was not until 1993 that the United States passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), granting certain categories of women and men up to twelve weeks of unpaid job-protected leave for the following reasons: the birth and care of a newborn child; the placement of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care; to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition; and the employee’s own serious illness or injury.”

Source: Megan A. Scholar, "The History of Family Leave Policies in the United States" , The American Historian, OAH; Organization of American Historians, http://tah.oah.org/november-2016/the-history-of-family-leave-policies-in-the-united-states/

Paid Leave vs. Unpaid Leave

It is very important to be aware of the difference of the right males have to paternity leave versus the entitlement of paid paternity leave. Those who are eligible to receive paid paternity leave, for up to 12 weeks, must take such leaves congruently (one immediately after the next allotment of time). The right to pay during paternity leave is unconnected to the right to paternity leave. Most fathers do not have the right to paid paternity leave and if they do so choose to take leave from work to fulfill their family responsibilities with a newborn in the household, take care of their spouse’s health, or bond with the newborn, they will have to do so without profit or compensation from work.

Implications of California Paternity Laws

Men are not eligible to take pregnancy disability leave, as women are, for men are biologically/ physically incapable of having children on their own. As men are allotted the same amount of time as women are, they are incapable of taking pregnancy disability leave that gives women the ability to take an additional ten to twelve weeks of leave (unpaid). Connecting to historically patriarchal family ideologies in the past, the possibility for a female to have more allotted leave from work over a male intersects into work-gender standards/ cliches.

With American laws concerning parental leave have, and still do, favor females over males in the United States, ideologies of traditional breadwinner-homemaker mentalities continue to be enforced. While it is illegal to make hiring or firing choices in the workplace based on employee gender, and it is absolutely illegal for employers to discriminate based on gender, by law females are given more time away from work (with the guarantee of reinstatement in the same job as before) than males. (Yet, female breadwinners, single mothers, and sole-providers for the home are becoming more and more consistent).

In addition, it proves even more difficult for a male to be granted time off within the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) eligibility guidelines. Moreover, women can be eligible to up to 7 more months of leave from work, depending on the CFRA.

With these opportunities in place that favor female parents over male, there is a greater pressure for mothers to take maternity leave than there is for fathers. Plus, in a majority of cases, males are simply more present in higher- paying industries. In general, American women work part-time more often than American males due to outside of work responsibilities which sometimes tie into the inability to find affordable childcare and day care.

Sources 

The American Historian

La Verne Chamber of Commerce 

The New York Times

Work Lawyers PC

Spiggle Law Firm