San Francisco Chronicle - Maternity leave basics: Canada vs. the US

Maternity and parental benefits provided for the birth or adoption of a baby varies wildly from country to country. The United States is part of a very exclusive group - but not for the reasons you might suspect. It shares the spotlight with Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Liberia and Lesotho as one of the only countries in the world that doesn't mandate some type of paid maternity leave for new mothers according to a study done by McGill University's Institute for Health and Social Policy. In fact, when compared to its northern neighbor, the U.S. maternity leave policy is embarrassingly sparse.