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For years Americans have been way behind many other first world countries when it comes to things like Maternity/Paternity Leave, Health Care and Education. While the movie giant Netflix hasn’t tried to tackle Health Care or Education yet, they have put the USA in the lead now when it comes to Maternity/Paternity Leave.

In Germany, new mothers get a stipend per child and a monthly allowance that equals roughly half of what their pay would be for a year before be cut off.

In France, new mothers get 100% of their pay for 16 weeks, and if they have two children, women can take an additional 2.5 years of job-protected family leave and their partner can take six months.

In Finland, you’d have plenty of time to prep for baby’s arrival. Paid maternity leave starts 50 days before your due date and continues for four months after giving birth. But think you have to return to work then? No. At that point, you or your spouse can collect parental allowance, which pays about 70 percent of your salary until the baby is nine months old.

Meanwhile, here in the “Good Ol US of A, where we are supposed to lead the charge in everything, we are sorely lacking. Most companies will give you 12 Weeks unpaid leave to have your child, after you have used all your sick and vacation days that is. Plus, if you think dear old dad is getting time off too, yeah, he gets a month to bond with the new tyke.

All of that changed when Netflix decided to take the bull by the horns when they decided to, what I hope will soon be followed by every company, offer 1 full year of both maternity and/or paternity leave, fully paid. So there are no disability claims to fuss with, now all you have to do is sit at home with junior and bond and find out what parenthood is really about.

After hearing this news, I would imagine progressive companies like Google, Yahoo and others will jump on board or at least offer something similar to compete. We are nothing if not a nation of following a trend.

I will tell you this, Netflix has my total support and right now, they are probably my favorite company for being so out front, and that is saying a lot!

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