“The United States is the only wealthy country with no national paid family leave.”
Verdict: TrueAmong the 38 OECD member countries, the U.S. is the only one with no national paid maternity or parental leave program. Thirteen states and D.C. run their own programs, but there is no federal guarantee.
The OECD — the club of the world’s wealthy democracies — tracks family-leave policy across its 38 members, and the United States stands alone in guaranteeing zero weeks of paid leave at the national level. Globally, only a handful of countries lack any national paid maternity leave. The federal FMLA provides 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for roughly six in ten workers, and a growing set of states (California, New York, New Jersey, and others) run paid programs — but a state patchwork is not a national guarantee, which is precisely what the claim asserts. On the standard definitions, the claim holds.
Sources
- Paid Family Leave Across OECD Countries — Bipartisan Policy Center
- Of 41 countries, only U.S. lacks paid parental leave — Pew Research Center
- A National Paid Leave Program Would Help Workers, Families — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities