News

Women Even Less Equal In Workplace Than We Thought

by Emma Cueto

You know those stories that just make you sigh and shake your head? Yeah about that: Women are less likely than men to get paid extended time off. So sigh away. A national survey, commissioned by American Women, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the National Partnership for Women & Families, revealed that only 27 percent of women were paid a full wage when they took more than seven days off as opposed to 39 percent of men.

Though both men and women take a similar amount of extended leave, women are much less likely to be paid for theirs. Because apparently it's less important for women to take time off to look after a family member, their own health, or a new baby.

The elephant in the room in all of this, of course, is maternity leave. The report doesn't specify, but if I were to lay money down, I'd say that the majority of the extended time off women take is maternity leave. So it's not surprising they are less likely to get paid for time off since the U.S. is infamously the only first world nation without guaranteed paid maternity leave. Because it would be unfair to let women get all of that extra paid time off that – oh wait, men take just as much extended leave as women. They just get paid for it.

Between pay inequality, sexual harassment, and now this, it seems we still have long way to go to achieve true gender equality in the workplace. But instituting paid maternity leave might be a good place to start. So get on that Congress, would you? Because you're running out of excuses.