As part of our ongoing coverage of paid leave, we’re rounding up the most important news from the week. Here’s what you need to know about paid leave, working parents, and child care in the United States and abroad.
Bernie Sanders is redefining family values. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders announced his “Family Values Agenda,” which includes guaranteeing twelve weeks of paid maternity leave for every American worker. Your move, Hillary.
Virgin CEO Richard Branson announced an incredible new leave policy. Here’s the catch: It only applies to about 140 employees. Men and women who have worked in the London or Geneva offices of Virgin Management (that’s the investment arm of Virgin Group) for four years or more can take an entire year off while receiving their full salary.
Paternity leave around the world: At least 79 countries guarantee some kind of paternity leave in their national laws, according to this interactive map from Time. In some countries, like Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, it’s as short as one day of full pay—which is still more than fathers in the U.S. are entitled to.
“Do you think you’re going to get maternity leave when you have a baby?” Kirsten Gillibrand tells New York magazine that too few young women are aware that paid leave isn’t guaranteed—or common—for new mothers in the United States. “I don’t think young people know that there are a lot of workplace rules that aren’t family-friendly.”
#GIRLBOSS fires employees for getting pregnant. Online retailer Nasty Gal fired three pregnant women, as well as a man about to take paternity leave, according to a recently filed discrimination lawsuit. Irony alert: The company’s 31-year-old millionaire founder, Sophia Amoruso, published a bestselling memoir last year titled #GIRLBOSS, pitched as a Lean In for millennial women.