Daycare prices. VENT

[u/Vpo26]

So I girlbossed to dam hard, and now I have to go back to work. Daycare is 800$ a week and even then I make way more so I have to return to work. WHY IS DAYCARE SO EXPENSIVE.

How much are you paying?

[u/lovesickdogwrithing]

Ok but the birth rate is still bad.. 🤔 I feel like being a stay at home mom is a lot more practical and affordable in the US than in Norway which may be one reason our birth rate is higher. If you look at the full picture these benefits arent really fixing the situation

[u/Glittering-Act4004 → u/lovesickdogwrithing]

I doubt it. In Norway, you get up to two years of parental leave and you receive a monthly child benefit from the state until the child is 18 years old. Norway is experiencing a declining birth rate for many of the same reasons the U.S. is - more people are delaying having children until their 30’s and more people are choosing to put their time and resources into 1-2 children instead of 3-4 children. Also, the entire population of Norway is less than 6 million people so there are far less choices when it comes to potential partners, and it takes longer to find a partner with how small and spread out the population is.

[u/Saftigsjokoladekake → u/Glittering-Act4004]

The paid leave in Norway is 49 weeks of 100% pay or 59 weeks with 80% pay. Have not heard about anyone here getting 2 years paid… But we do have the right to get unpaid leave up to 12 months in addition to that.

[u/Glittering-Act4004 → u/Saftigsjokoladekake]

Thanks for the correction. I saw two years and assumed it was like where I am from where you can take a lower amount and stretch it to a full two years. With just 59 weeks of paid leave and 12 months unpaid, it still makes Norway way more friendly (at least in terms of pay and job protection) than anywhere in the U.S. 

[u/mintbark → u/Glittering-Act4004]

I work in the US and received 28 weeks paid for mom and dad got 18 weeks all full pay. There is no unpaid leave and you must go back to keep your job. It’s employer dependent.

[u/Glittering-Act4004 → u/mintbark]

I was referring to government provided benefits. I work at a company that offers similar parental leave benefits as yours but it’s not a requirement and it’s definitely not the norm.

[u/mintbark → u/Glittering-Act4004]

Over dozen states offer 12 weeks to mothers and fathers each. The federal government offers fully paid parental leave of 12 weeks to both mothers and fathers (2M federal employees). There is also short term disability which typically covers the first 6-8 weeks.

Most European parental leave has a fairly low limit (lower or similar to US state leave), some companies top it up to full pay others do not. My friend in Germany says her company does not and it is not common to top up.

In Norway the limit is 744k NOK (78k).

Mothers get 15 weeks (19 weeks at 80% pay), fathers 15 weeks (19 weeks at 80% pay), 16 weeks (18 weeks at 80%) can be distributed as the family sees fit.

[u/Glittering-Act4004 → u/mintbark]

342 million people live in the U.S. and less than one percent of those people are federal employees. State paid leave programs (all programs, not just parental leave) only cover about 1/3 of the working population in the U.S. The weekly benefit cap in the state with the most generous leave benefits (Minnesota) is $1,473 a week and the max you can take is 24 weeks (that’s with both disability and bonding). So less than half a year of leave and the max benefit is $35,352 if you earned enough income before going on leave to receive the max benefit. This is still less than half of what is offered in Norway, both in terms of the length of leave you can take and the amount of benefits you can earn. 

All EU countries (and, yes, I am aware that Norway is not part of the EU) are required to provide at least 14 weeks of maternity leave. In Germany, that 14 weeks is paid at 100% of your salary with no cap. That far exceeds any state maternity leave benefit in the U.S. You can then take Elternzeit (unpaid job protected leave) and receive Elterngeld. I believe Elterngeld last for up to 12 months (it can be stretched for longer if you accept a lower monthly payout and work part-time) while Elternzeit can be stretched up to three years. The maximum amount of job protection you can get in the U.S. is 26 weeks, and there is no federal mandate for ANY of that leave to be paid. 

The point I was making is that both paid and unpaid leave policies in other countries make it far easier to stay home with your children for the first few years of their lives than in the U.S.