The benefits of paid parental leave

The benefits of paid parental leave In 2007, around 280 000 mothers gave birth in Australia and around 175 000 of these were working mothers who intend to work again. Consequently, there is a significant number of working mothers who require taking leave from work. There have been debates in Australia over a proposal of a statutory scheme that would offer paid parental leave to parents. The concern of paid parental leave has been significant because of the increasing womens part on jobs, family income sources and children carers. Womens participation in work has increased compared to the past. Female aged 25 to 34 years had increased from 45 to 70 per cent from 1978 to 2008 whereas mens participation in the same age range fell by 4 per cent (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 5.6). There are three proposed objectives for a paid parental leave, such as the wellbeing improvement of families, especially child and mothers health, associated with leave from work around the baby birth and secured financial during that period; enc ouragement of women to return to the workforce by the social welfare and tax system; and by the norms of community, having family time is the basic human rights for many people including fathers and the importance of caring and valuing children. This paper will discuss the major issues and models with regard to paid leave and the methods to assess these models. Paid parental leave provides benefits for parents, especially for mothers. From the mothers point of view, paid parental leave allows her to take a longer leave from job than she could otherwise have afforded and to enjoy extra financial assistance. However, problems arise with the paid parental leave. The first major issue is that the mothers attachment to the job might be deteriorated along with extended period a home; her skills will decline and as a result will create obstacles to her return (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 5.17). Moreover, the impacts of paid leave on labour market also broaden beyond parents too. For instance, paid leave affects employees wage rates and may discriminate against women because employers alert that female employees might have children in the future. There are incentives for discrimination on women if paid parental leave actually increases the costs to the employers. The absence of employee inflicts costs on employers, this may include leave administ ration costs, hiring and training replacement costs which will reduce the productivity level (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 24). However, on the employee side, the incentives to stay inside labour force and to choose occupation and employer are determined by the costs and benefits of these choices, which unnecessarily a monetary value. People outside the labour force get welfare transfers and benefits from untaxed work that they do, but they might be marginalized socially and economically. However, people inside the labour force get wages and benefits from parental leave and childcare rebates, but it might be difficult to balance between the importance of caring and working. The second issue of paid parental leave is concerned with the impact of paid generosity and leave duration. More generous payments increase the financial support for women and encourage them to return to work. On the other hand, greater generosity increases the length of leave from work. At some circumstances, the employment benefits are eroded by excessive absence from work which would reduce work skills and productivity. Moreover, female labour wages would increase slowly if female labour supply increases while demand is not following due to the paid parental leave (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 5.2). Employers might also reduce wage when excessive absence from work increases costs for employers. Therefore, the productivity, wages and female labour skills rises as long as the duration of leave is not excessively long. Third issue is the paid parental leave concerns with the equitably issue. In principle, paid leave should pay attention to the fairness in both horizontal and vertical dimensions (Commonwealth of Australia, p. 1.19). Horizontal equity refers to individuals and families in similar economic situations and being treated similarly whereas vertical equity refers to individuals and families in different economic situations and being treated in a different manner. However, equity is difficult to achieve in practice. People will be treated differently for different situations and it is inevitable. For instance, paying paid parental leave to working mothers may be seem as equitable but not equitable for women not working in the legal labour force. Replacement wages paid by employer seems to be more equitable for low income earners than a government-funded scheme that pays the minimum wage. Fourth major issue of paid leave in Australia is that only one-third of women labour force is eligible for the paid leave because women in Australia is highly segmented and in part-time employment, all of which are reducing females eligibility to paid leave (Baird, M., 2002). Fifth issue is the payment of parental leave. A payment equivalent to their minimum weekly income is justified if the objective is to assure their demand. However, full income payment is justified if the objective is to assure their social and economic independence (Frank, M., p.317). The final issue is regarding the funding source. There is an argument over which parties responsible to fund the leave as small employers cannot afford and thus women will be discriminated in work force. Australia has the lowest level of women labour force participation in the OECD (AEU Federal, p.2). If women labour force is declining, this will raise the inflation and reduce productivity and there will be a shortage of labour supply. Thus, women with paid leave tend to return to work than those without and will push-up the labour supply. To illustrate the paid parental leave, it is important to compare the different parental leave models in different countries. The Swedish parental leave system is seen to be a good model because of its commitment to developing equality between men and women and because of its generosity of payment. The Swedish allows parents a twelve-month of absence from work in regard to birth and parents either father or mother receive 90 per cent untaxed of their salary for their first nine months of leave (Allen, J.P., p.248). Whereas in Germany, parents are allowed to take leave for a shorter time of period only compared to Sweden because women in West Germ any have not entered the labour force as many as other industrialized countries. Only women are eligible to receive the leave payment and that also depends on their incomes. However, the United States is among the few industrialized countries that do not provide employment benefits, including sickness benefit, health insurance benefits, and paternal benefits. Therefore, to compare the equality issue between these three countries, the paid parental leave provided in Sweden and Germany helps female labour force to enter and remain at work, whereas female labour force tend to exit the labour force in the United States. Sweden is the most generous in paid parental leave and should be considered as a model in Australia whereas the U.S. fails to provide equality and support for parents and children. There are several models with regard to paid leave. First, 52 weeks paid parental leave starts with 26 weeks paid leave now, 39 by 2012 and 52 by 2016. Second, 26 weeks basic paid maternity and supporting parent leave as follows: (i) Basic Paid Maternity Leave (BPML) provision in which Australia should provide paid basic maternity leave of 24 weeks for all working women, and (ii) Basic Paid supporting Parent Leave (BPPL) provision in which Australia should provide basic paid partner leave of 2 weeks for all supporting partners. Third, the paid partner leave: use it or lose it in which partners who do not use their paid leave will not be able to reallocate it to mothers. This system induces fathers to take leave efficiently. Fourth, the existing paid maternity leave. Fifth, the basic payments through employers in which government provide payment similar to employers for employee and taxable. Payment through employers is desirable because all factors of employment will not be missed ou t. Sixth, the simultaneous leave in which parents can take leave simultaneously. Finally, the provision of rights to be protected from discrimination and the rights to return to work after their leave (Hill and Pocock, p.11). There are two methods to evaluate financial of paid leave and they have to be implemented simultaneously to provide the most effective paid leave policy. First, the income of financial contributor should not be affected. Second, the method should not create negative economic incentives. For example, an employer pays for his employees leave and financial method encourage the employer not to hire a female worker who would likely to take the leave (Frank, M., p.319). To summarize, paid parental leave is a system that provides benefits for mothers who give birth to achieve specific social and economic outcomes. There are three proposed objectives for a paid parental leave, such as the wellbeing improvement of families, especially child and mothers health, associated with leave from work around the baby birth and secured financial during that period; encouragement of women to return to the workforce by the social welfare and tax system; and by the norms of community, having family time is the basic human rights for many people including fathers and the importance of caring and valuing children. To help inducing the benefits of paid parental leave, it is necessary for financial assistance for mothers in order for them to spend time with their newborn babies, rather than just taking financial assistance, limit their leave and exit the labour force. The paid leave system has particular objectives that are valued differently to individual. In order to deliver those objectives efficiently, the system should provide incentives for mothers to increase the absence time from work to be with their child and to return and remain to the workforce. Parental leave would be a crucial system to encourage labour market efficiency and would represent the equality between men and women in the workforce.

Free Trade With China :: essays research papers

China will continue its efforts to enter into the World Trade Organization (WTO), Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Wu Yi said in Beijing on April 21 during her talks with Renato Ruggiero, director-general of WTO. Wu said that although China hopes to solve this problem as soon as possible, it is prepared for new difficulties and obstacles it will face in the entry process. No matter what the outcome, she said, China will not stop but rather speed up its reform and opening drive. She noted that China's position on entering WTO is firm and clear, and China's entry will be not only beneficial to China but also to all members of WTO and the development of the world economy. Wu said that China asked to join the multi-national trade system 11 years ago because the country realized at that time that the objectives of the reform and opening are to gradually change from the planned economy to a socialist market economy. China's participation in the WTO shares the aims of reform and opening, as well as those of the socialist market economy, which was advocated by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Wu said she is satisfied with the progress made in the recent third meeting of the Chinese working group, saying it indicates that as long as the parties concerned have a sincere desire to solve the problem, and bring that sincerity to the negotiation table, the discussions will move forward. The major negotiation parties should work harder to be flexible and down to earth, in order to make the most of the current opportunity, she said, adding that China's efforts alone are not enough. Wu said that major members of WTO should not take China's development potential as reality and therefore make an unrealistic evaluation of the situation. China firmly opposes economic hegemonism and hopes that major negotiating parties will raise their requirement on a legal basis and within the mechanism and scope of WTO agreements, she noted. In the meantime, she continued, they should also take into consideration China's economic status as a developing country and its social and economic situation.

Explore Shakespeare’s presentation Essay

‘The play was written in the 1600’s, at this time the role of women was vastly different than their role in today’s society. The woman was to be the dutiful housewife, being expected to run the house cook meals and look after the children. In wealthy families girls were subject to their fathers will. Marriage was a business contract, not about love, but to keep land and wealth within a family. Girls were raised to be obedient to their parents. Children in the 1600’s were to be seen and not heard a lot like later Victorian times. The girls were not to be formally educated they were to stay at and help their mothers with everyday jobs such as washing and cleaning. However this is no longer the case. Women are more and more frequently following the same career paths as men. They also have more rights. Both of these mean women are now equal to men. In the play, Juliet is fourteen, her father feels she should want to become a wife. † She hath not seen the change of fourteen years† However unlike other marriages at the time her father wants her to be happy and try to love a gentleman called Count Paris. Her father is aware of her feelings. However Lady Capulet seems to want Juliet to marry and does not consider her happiness, she uses the argument that † younger than you here in Verona ladies of esteem are made already mothers she reinforces this by telling her â€Å"I was your mother much upon these years† Juliet has a close and trusting relationship with the nurse who has looked after her since birth. She is Juliet’s mother figure. The nurse uses terms of affection for her such as † what lamb! † We first see Juliet in the scene between Lady Capulet and the Nurse. This is also the scene when we see Juliet talk to her mother for the first time in the play. † Madam I am here what is your will? † this is formal. Juliet trusts her parents and respects their wishes, by accepting marriage, however this is before she meets Romeo. Romeo and Juliet first encounter with each other is at the Capulet’s mansion during the ball, which Romeo and his friends should not be attending. They speak a sonnet together. â€Å"My lips like two blushing pilgrims, ready stand. † We see in this scene Juliet being quick witted and covering with the nurse, when she discovers Romeo’s identity. Juliet quickly loses her innocence in this scene. In the balcony scene, we are able to compare Romeo and Juliet. This scene is also important because we see the differences between the characters. Romeos language is full of romantic imagery. He is in a dream like state. â€Å"0’speak again bright angel. † He speaks about her comparing her to the â€Å"heaven and to the stars. † She is his â€Å"east. † This puts her in a higher place and shows she is above all mortals to him. Whereas Juliet seems to be more practical. Juliet is more meaningful and uses the questions wisely to find out more about Romeo. † are you a Montague? † â€Å"How did you get here? † These questions mean something whereas Romeo is more poetical, and tries to impress Juliet. Romeo’s responses are fantastical † with loves light wings did I O’erperch these walls. † In exchange Juliet never cunning, she is always sincere. While Romeo is rhapsodising over love, she realises how rash their avowals of love may be. â€Å"too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden. † Juliet responds to Romeo with generosity and infinite love. Romeo is lost in a happy dream, but Juliet looks ahead, it is she who suggests marriage. She is resourceful. She shows no fear of disobeying her parents, â€Å"what O’clock shall I send for thee tomorrow? † whilst Romeo is comparing silver sweet sounds, loves, loves tongue to the softest music. However Juliet too can be poetical, she is able to express her love for Romeo with intensity and feeling. † my county is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep† It is interesting that Juliet is the first one to mention marriage. † if that thy bat of love be honourable, thy purpose marriage. † Juliet trusts the nurse. She is the only person Juliet confides in. â€Å"to ask his name if he be married. † She trusts the nurse with such a message to take to Romeo. This shows the strength of their relationship. She can put on a good show to get her own way. She also trusts the nurse in telling Romeo to meet her for a night of passion. Juliet is as impulsive as Romeo and hurries off to meet him at Friar Lawrence’s cell. Juliet is open with Romeo, however she is happy to deceive her family in to thinking she is going to confession. Juliet later uses religion again to deceive her family. Once married, Juliet is forced to grow up very quickly as she needs to deal with a series of terrible events that happen in a short period of time. Romeo vanishes because he killed Tybalt, â€Å"murder’d her kinsman. † Romeo is then sentenced to death on the hour he is found. † when he is found, that hour shall be his last. † The pain of Romeo’s banishment is immediately succeeded by the horror of her father’s plans for another wedding, â€Å"marry, my child, early next Thursday mom! † Juliet and Romeo spend the night together at the Capulet mansion. We see the physical side of man and wife. She shows that she wants to be with Romeo all the while. However he has to go. Juliet begs him to stay. â€Å"it was the nightingale and not the lark. † She is stronger^ than Romeo when she hears about the wedding he goes to pieces. Sobbing and wailing, trying to kill himself, in the face calamity she does her best to cope. When Juliet refuses to obey her parents in marriage they are shocked her father is no longer indulgent, and he and her mother turn against her and are very cruel to her. † hang thee young baggage! Disobedient wretch! † Despite their insulting comment Juliet calm. In despair Juliet turns to the nurse for comfort, but is told to forget Romeo and marry Paris â€Å"marry, I will and this is wisely done. † She is hurt and feels betrayed by this comment from the nurse, she trusted the nurse and now that trust as gone. However she shows qualities of determination and courage, which enable her to hide her anguish, and chat wittily and apparently calm with Paris at the Friar’s cell. Juliet has no choice but to agree to the Friar’s desperate scheme, she has neither family, nurse nor husband to support her. † My dismal scene needs must act alone. † She agrees to take the potion this shows her courage and determination, with child like horror she goes through everything that could go wrong with taking the potion, finally realising she has no other option, drinks the potion with great courage. The potion heightens the drama of the scene as she is isolated from her family and friends. Juliet is true and faithful because when she awakes in the tomb the first thing she says with child like simplicity â€Å"where is my Romeo? † she is deserted once again, this lime however by the Friar. When she realises that Romeo is dead, she is ^courageous to the last minute she stabs her self. Her last act is immediate and determined and successful, it is expressive of her love for Romeo and is keeping with her character and everything she has done through out the play. However at the end of the play she is still a 14 year old girl with her whole life in front of her. She succumbs to an adolescent^ despair. At the end of the play Lord Montague says † I will raise her statue in pure gold. The deaths of Romeo and Juliet brings harmony and unison to the two families. Lord Montague at the end realises Juliet has been â€Å"true and faithful†.

Human memory essays

Human memory essays The study of human memory and in particular the attempts to distinguish between different types of memory have benn investigated for the last century. Philosophy, psychiatry and psychologh have all contributed to this study. Korsakoff, Freud and Ebbinghaus are among the early contributers. Although their observations were not always methodological as strict as with current research they did play a vital role. One critisim of the early work was that there were few attempts to develope theroetical accounts of the dissociations that they observed (Schacter, 1989). This is of great importance to the study of implicit memory. One of the earliest uses of 'implicit' and 'explicit' memory distinctions in research was by Wiliam McDougall (Outline of psychology, 1924). This distinction defined 'explicit' memory as involving conscious recollection of a past event and 'implicit' memory as involving a change in behaviour that is attriduted to a recent event but contains no conscious recollection or explicit reference. (Schacter, 1989). Much of the controvacy that surrounds implicit memory study centeres arround its definition. Whether it defines the pretest situation or a theoritical construct of the underlying memory process. The main argument is that if similiar items must share common features if they are to belong to the same catagory of test or process. " Some ttheorists, for example, have argued that different manifestations of memory are attributable to the operation of the distinct memory systems(e.g. Schacter 1989; Squire 1992; Tulving 1993; Tulving and Schacter 1990). Others argue that these different manifestations are consistent with a process viewpoint (e.g. Jacoby et al. 1989a; Kolers and Roediger 1984; Roediger 1990; Roediger et al 1989)." From Richardson-Klavehn (1996). To explicate the positions, a review of the experimental evidence is necessary. Recently five main areas have informed research into implicit memory, Sc...

Case of Pregnant Lady essays

Case of Pregnant Lady essays Was the Pregnant Teacher Unfairly Treated? Jane Mangalo an assistant professor of management just got reappointed to teach for another three years before the universitys personnel committee decides to tenure her. Over the past few semesters that Jane had been teaching, she has had received excellent ratings from her students except one semester where she did not get good reviews. During that semester Jane had been pregnant and was suffering from severe nausea and weakness that she had to use an intravenous line continuously and to sit in one place in the classroom, which prevented her from writing on the blackboard or using the projectors as she led class discussions. The universitys personnel committee found evidence of weak teaching performance in one semester, it decided to include in Janes reappointment letter that encouraged her to work on improving her teaching performances. Finding out this information, naturally Jane Mangalo was angered by the negative reference to her teaching performance. Naturally Jane felt as though she was treated unfairly because of her pregnancy. Underneath the regulations of Employment Equal Opportunity (EEO) laws, Jane is protected by The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. This act requires employers to treat an employee who is pregnant in the same way as any other employee who has a medical condition. For instance an employer cannot deny sick leave for pregnancy-related illnesses such as morning sickness if the employer allows sick leave for other medical conditions as nausea related illnesses. For Janes situation, I assume that Jane feels as though she had received her bad report performance just because she was physically not able to teach her class like usual and was based on that one incident due to her pregnancy. If this case were related to another person who was suffering from an illness and was not capable of performing that well the ...

Critical Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Critical Summary - Essay Example The pivotal goal of Jesse Prinz is to challenge the two main perspectives for the formation of emotions. According to some evolutionary psychologists, emotions are the evolved adaptations and products of nature. Other psychologists believe that emotions differ across the social boundaries and are socially created. â€Å"Emotions are socially constructed and evolved† (Prinz, 2004). Many psychologists claimed that response of emotions is created to serve challenges. The author defended the views of other psychologists that the patterned change in the human body can lead to emotion. Fear can be identified through the perception of muscle tensing and hearts racing. The romantic jealousy between partners has been developed through the story of evolutionary. Romantic commitment between the couples can be developed through love. Jealousy prevents the partners from the betraying the romantic commitments. Negative supporters of the evolutionary psychologists believe that emotions are s ocially constructed and are products of nature. Emotions are not associated with the states of bodily changes. Emotions can last long without the perturbation of the human body. Cultural factors can affect the emotion and body respond. Randolph M. Nesse implements adaptationist approach to explain emotions. Emotions can be shaped by the adjustable challenges of certain states. Some core emotions of human beings are sadness, happiness, anger, love and fear. Illustrated groups of emotions described in the article states that the behavioral, psychological and cognitive change in the human body supports the details of an emotional conditions. I strongly support the qualified version of emotions provided by Randolph M. Nesse and Jesse Prinz. Jesse Prinz described emotions as the perception of bodily changes. Culture can affect bodily response. Some of the elicitation files can be biological based. These files can influence the content of emotions. Emotions are the biological

Can teachers support creativity and imagination in children Essay

Can teachers support creativity and imagination in children - Essay Example Therefore, teachers play a huge role in moulding the personality and character of the child and hence make substantial contributions in encouraging imagination and creativity in a child. Though, the substance of this prose will examine as to how teachers can spur creativity and imagination young children. Creativity is a highly important aspect of a child’s educational endeavours because through creativity the child helps to identify himself as a unique person and is conducive to a healthy personality development of the child. Creativity is the process of innovating and focuses on how people use new methods and ideas in order to find alternative and fresh solutions to a particular problem. The United Kingdom National Advisory Committee’s report in 1999 focuses a great deal on the importance of creativity. (Morris, 2006) The report describes and defines creativity as, â€Å"First, they (the characteristics of creativity) always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively . Second, overall this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective.† Their definition of creativity clearly demonstrates the strong association with the imaginative and creative process within a child. (Morris, 2006) In simplistic terms, creativity embodies imagination, purposefulness, originality and the outcome must be of immense value and opens up the world to new opportunities and experiences. It is important to know the role of creativity in the society that focuses so much on creativity therefore, the process of learning greatly involves the child thinking in a lateral manner. Creativity is good for the child’s self-image and his identity so that he knows how to set himself apart from the crowd and make his own mark in this dynamic world. Creativity and imagination has become a highly important aspect in the educational sector and there are number of programs that are designed to help teachers out in order to encourage their students to become more creative and imaginative. The United States creative classroom is another example of how people from all around the world understand the need for the child to be creative and imaginative. The project was developed by Project Zero in collaboration with Disney Worldwide Outreach and together they worked to develop materials and a variety of methods to help the child become more creative. Their main objective was not only to help the teachers understand the importance of spurring creativity and imagination in the child. (Mayer, 2005) The American project further added to the definition of creativity given by UK National Advisory Committee report, they stated, â€Å"Although most people might look for signs of creativity in the appearance of the bulletin boards, student made projects, centres and displays in the classroom, I feel the tru ly creative classroom goes way beyond what can be seen with the eyes. It is a place where bodies and minds actively pursue new knowledge. Having a creative classroom means that the teacher takes risks on a daily basis and encourages his/her students to do the same.†