My wife and I just had a baby. And, thanks to a generous parental leave policy hammered out between my union and my employer back in 2021, I’m about to take six months of paid leave. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me to help our new son thrive during the critical early months of his existence.
For you, Planet Money newsletter readers, this means the newsletter’s frequency of publication will be temporarily scaled back — from once a week to once a month — until I return.
For me, it means I’m going to be spending a lot of time less time reporting and writing, and a lot more time changing diapers, rocking my crying baby to sleep, and being the best father (and husband) I can be.
Even before I started looking into the numbers on paternity leave, I knew, anecdotally, that my ability to do this was an incredible privilege. It’s a shining opportunity to bond with my new child, support my recuperating wife, develop critical parenting skills, and, honestly, cope with inevitable sleep deprivation. Given the exorbitant cost of childcare in this country, it’s also, frankly, a huge money-saver for our young family.
After looking at the numbers on paternity leave in the U.S., however, I feel more than privileged. I feel like a unicorn who won the lottery under the glow of a solar eclipse. I mean, it’s really rare for any American worker, mother or father, to be able to get this amount of paid time off to take care of their newborn.
Only about a quarter of American workers — regardless of gender — have access to paid parental leave, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most new parents in America have to cobble together other leave, like vacation or sick leave — or simply take unpaid leave — if they want to take time off to…
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