Swedish Practices to Import to the American Model

America is the only developed country that doesn’t have paid parental leave. From all the benefits that are in place in Sweden I would implement change in the FMLA extending eligibility, couverture, providing paid parental leave, and flexibility (the way they do in Swedish Amy), to make sure the benefit and protection that the law provides cover to the most amount of workers in a way that can be sustainable for the American companies. These changes would be the first step to initiate a more flexible working culture, and provide a better balance between family and job without jeopardizing the economic viability for small companies.
In that case I would implement paid parental leave to all the companies in the public sector, providing at least 80% of the salary, (the way it is in Sweden) and in the same amount in the private sector to companies with more than than 10 employees at the same worksite, or more than 40 spread across multiple worksites within a 75-mile radius to make sure it is feasible. I believe companies with more than 10 employees per site can compensate with extra hours work, temporary Workers, temporary work accommodation, or flexibility, the burden of having one of their employees on leave. Alternatives in the work should be used to consolidate a flexible system to support better work- life balance.
I think those changes are feasible because the qualifying event are so restricted that won’t represent significantly higher costs and the use of the services won’t overload the system. On the other hand, I consider that any employee should have access to the benefits to facilitate caring for their families. Parental leave, paid leave, and short terms for availability is an ambitious change, but as I mentioned before, all the other develop countries managed to implement it.
I would also suggest a maternity leave for three months to each parent. The quality care of a child the first months is associated with less complication in health in the future, which at the same time represents less absenteeism and leave of the parent. I would state it for men and women to avoid future discrimination towards women, because it’s important to instill family participation in men, and because two companies can share the burden of having parents on leave.
The other most important factor that we can learn from the Swedish model is the Equal pay for Equal job. Wages shouldn’t be a factor to negotiate, but a constant, to avoid lowering wages to make profit to the detriment of the employees. But to bring a change in culture it is important to adapt the system to the culture of flexible job to facilitate integration after having FMLA.