Parental Leave Discrimination
Have you been unlawfully denied parental leave?
Have you been unlawfully denied parental leave?
Quality time to bond with and care for a new child is critically important. Every parent – not just those who give birth – should have the right to take parental leave, regardless of what their family looks like or what their gender is.
Unfortunately, many employers discriminate by denying parental leave to male employees and other non-birth parents. These policies can violate the law and perpetuate unlawful stereotypes that women are supposed to care for their children and not work, and men are supposed to work and not care for their children. These policies hurt women, men, and all parents. They make our workplaces less equal and dynamic, and it’s time to make them a thing of the past.
Although federal law does not mandate paid parental leave, employers who offer paid parental leave may violate the law under certain circumstances if they provide more parental leave to women than to men, or provide more parental leave to birth parents than adoptive parents. Under federal law and many state laws, a paid maternity-paternity leave policy or parental leave policy is unlawful if the disparity in paid leave between a birth mother and a birth father is greater than the time it ordinarily takes a birth mother to recover from giving birth, which is typically six weeks (or eight weeks in the case of a Caesarian delivery). In addition, any leave provided for caretaking purposes (as opposed to recovery from childbirth) must be provided on an equal, gender-neutral basis to all parents.
Below are some examples of policies and practices that might violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the applicable federal law) and similar state anti-discrimination laws:
- Providing 12 weeks of paid parental leave to birth mothers for while providing birth fathers only 2 weeks of paid parental leave (resulting in a 10-week disparity in paid leave)
- Providing 8 weeks of paid parental leave to all birth mothers, but no paid parental leave to other parents.
- Placing conditions on fathers before they can take paid parental leave that are not required of birth mothers—like requiring the birth mother to return to work or be incapable of caring for the child before the father can take leave.
- Retaliating against parents for taking paid or unpaid parental leave, such as reductions in salary or bonuses, denying or slowing promotions, worse work assignments, or event harassment.
- Denying fathers the same return-to-work benefits offered to mothers, such as part-time or flexible work schedules.
Have you experienced issues with your employer having an unfair or unequal parental leave policy or treating you unfairly because you took parental leave? For more information about your rights under federal and state laws, schedule a free confidential consultation today.
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Jun 7, 2019 / Media Coverage / J.P. Morgan Chase
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May 31, 2019 / News Item / J.P. Morgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase on Thursday agreed to pay $5 million to settle a discrimination case related to its parental leave policy for fathers. The class-...
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When Derek Rotondo, a seven-year investigator with JPMorgan Chase, asked to take the company’s 16-week paid parental leave, he was told that “only...
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