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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Stretched to the limit

The US has the largest economy in the world, but is one of just a handful of countries that do not guarantee paid leave for workers who fall sick, have kids or become carers for loved ones.
Could 2020 be the year that begins to change?

6 February 2021

  • People hold signs during a rally for paid family leave in 2016.

    Congress is 'better poised than ever' to pass paid family leave bill, lawmakers say

    Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Rosa DeLauro first introduced the Family Act in 2013, but it has failed to gain sufficient support

31 January 2020

  • Wanda Coker, of Durham, North Carolina, poses for a portrait at the office of NC Raise Up/Fight for $15 on Thursday, December 12, 2019 in Durham, NC. Coker works as an assistant general manager at a Burger King in Raleigh and has been involved with NC Raise Up since 2016, where holds a leadership role. In 2016, diabetes and high blood pressure lead to kidney failure, forcing Coker to go on dialysis. She receives treatment three days a week for three and a half hours; as a manager at Burger King, she’s required to work five 10-hour shifts each week. (Photo by Rachel Jessen for The Guardian)

    'I suffer through it': how US workers cope without paid sick leave

    The US is one of just a few high-income countries globally that do not guarantee sick leave, forcing many to work when they are not medically fit to do so

29 January 2020

  • Alexis Ohanian, entrepreneur, investor, and a co-founder of Reddit, at the Soho Grand in NYC, October 2019.

    Reddit co-founder on paternity leave and male success: 'These things are not mutually exclusive'

  • Paternity leave is slowly on the rise globally, but it is still far less common than maternity leave

    Paternity leave: US is least generous in list of world's richest countries

27 January 2020

  • The US is the only OECD country without a national statutory paid maternity, paternity or parental leave

    Maternity leave: US policy is worst on list of the world's richest countries

  • Jessica Rebeschini, 26, , with her sons Chase, 7, Karter, 4, and Brody, 1, and her husband Ron, 34 at a park near their home in Boundurant, IA on December 22, 2019. Photo credit: Kathryn Gamble for The Gaurdian

    ‘I was risking my life’: why one in four US women return to work two weeks after childbirth

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