“We’re Populating the Earth!” — Woman Shocked Maternity/FMLA Leave Is Unpaid in the U.S.

A stunned woman just learned FMLA leave is unpaid, and she expressed her befuddlement with this fact, stating that it seems unfair to expect a woman to help "populate the earth" and deal with the "trauma" of doing so during 12 weeks of time off without a paycheck.

Emily (@applebeeslover101) shared her frustration over learning this fact in a viral TikTok that's garnered over 1.3 million views on the popular social media platform.

"I'm feeling quite silly because I did not realize — don't come for me I didn't know — I didn't need to know and I don't even need to know now, but I didn't realize maternity leave, FMLA, the law, is 12 weeks unpaid time off. Huh?" she says into the camera, looking confused.

"What?" she continues. "What? I'm so sorry my body's going through trauma. You're either pushing something literally out of you or you're getting it cut out. Oh, that needs time to heal, and then on top of that, you have a whole new being that needs to be watched like a hawk for a while. Oh, unpaid?"

She continued to highlight just how unfair she thinks it is that there isn't any legislature protecting women's salaries for a period of time and guaranteeing a paycheck while they're pregnant and/or in the aftermath of delivering a child.

"We're populating the earth. I don't, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm just, that's crazy to me. Who can I sue? The government?" she asks after smacking the sides of her hips with her arms and shaking her head around.

"When you can’t afford to bond with your child," she wrote in a caption of the video. One commenter wrote that "the U.S. only is one of six countries in the world without paid maternity leave."

NoCeilings.org seemingly supports this info; however, there were two more countries added to that figure. The outlet writes: "The United States, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Tonga are the only countries in the world that don't provide for paid leave for employed mothers after they give birth."

The outlet penned: "Paid leave is an important way for governments to support women and families."

In December of 2023, The Washington Post reported on a bipartisan bill that has garnered support among members of both the GOP and DNC. The legislature seeks to create federally mandated paid leave plans for all employees in the U.S.

Paid Leave for All is another initiative that folks could get behind in order to demand Senate and Congress to use the tax dollars it collects from citizens to support "caregivers" and family members during emergencies so they can tend to their personal lives and loved ones without having to worry about missing out on paychecks necessary for their survival.

The website even provides a fill-out form where folks can input the information of their state and local government representatives to hound them into supporting the initiative, and it even includes a copy-and-paste message individuals can then use to send out to different political leaders.

There are some who may argue promises of paid maternity leave, like universal healthcare in the United States, is ultimately a pipe dream as elected government officials may ultimately care about serving the purposes of the corporations who donate generously to their campaigns.

Corporations would ultimately benefit the least from a paid-leave-for-all incentive, as they will have to foot the bills for more workers who aren't in office or logged online remotely, helping to rake in profits for the business. So why would individuals who are being funded by these corporations jeopardize their payouts?

Depending on the industry you work in or company that employs you, however, paid parental leave is possible — businesses just have to opt for it, and the good news is that there are tons of U.S. companies that offer workers fat parental leave plans.

Netflix, for instance, gives moms a whopping 52 weeks off paid leave, regardless of a parent's gender, according to Tech.co: "Nexflix is an exemplary case study when it comes to generous parental leave. The streaming giant offers new parents a staggering 52 weeks of paid leave – granting employees even more time off to care for their children than countries like Norway and Germany. This perk is eligible for both genders and is even extended to adoptive parents. But despite workers being entitled to almost a full year of paid leave, the company reports that most new parents take anywhere between four to eight months."

And if you're not so enthused with the way the American government is handling things for its citizens, you can always check out other countries with federally mandated parental leave programs — Bulgaria has an especially generous maternity leave plan.