Maternity leave

Parental leave or family leave is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" generally includes maternity, paternity, and adoption leave. In some countries and jurisdictions, "family leave" also includes leave provided to care for ill family members. Often, the minimum benefits and eligibility requirements are stipulated by law.

Unpaid parental or family leave is provided when an employer is required to hold an employee's job while that employee is taking leave. Paid parental or family leave provides paid time off work to care for or make arrangements for the welfare of a child or dependent family member. The three most common models of funding are social insurance/social security (where employees, employers, or taxpayers in general contribute to a specific public fund), employer liability (where the employer must pay the employee for the length of leave), and mixed policies that combine both social security and employer liability.

Parental leave has been available as a legal right and/or governmental program for many years, in one form or another. In 2014, the International Labour Organization reviewed parental leave policies in 185 countries and territories, and found that all countries except Papua New Guinea have laws mandating some form of parental leave. A different study showed that of 186 countries examined, 96% offered some pay to mothers during leave, but only 81 of those countries offered the same for fathers. The United States and Suriname, while they do mandate unpaid parental leave, are the only other countries that do not require employers to provide paid time off for new parents.

Private employers sometimes provide either or both unpaid and paid parental leave outside of or in addition to any legal mandate.

Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum have developed a political model known as the Capabilities approach, where basic freedoms and opportunities are included in economic assessments of a country's well-being, in addition to GDP.Nussbaum proposed 10 central capabilities as the minimum requirement for a decent society. In Nussbaum's model, states should provide the resources and freedoms to ensure people have the opportunity to achieve a minimum threshold of each central capability. Universal, paid parental leave is an example resource states can provide so people have the option of starting a family while also working; for instance, under capacity 10 (control of one's environment), the state has a responsibility to ensure all people have "the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others."

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