Current US maternity leave policy as directed by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 includes a provision mandating 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for mothers of newborn or newly adopted children. This policy is distinct to other industrialized countries for its scarcity of benefits, in terms of the short length of protected leave and not offering some form of wage compensation for the leave of absence. These stark leave differentials are demonstrated in both the policy's length and compensation.
In terms of the length of protected maternity leave, the United States currently ranks 20th out of the 21 high-income countries.
Also, this only accounts for the mother, not the father of the biological child or co-parent of the adopted child.