>Employers should foot the bill.

I think society should foot the bill for society-wide benefits. I do not see any reason to expect small businesses (or even large businesses) to have to worry about the costs of funding parental leave benefits, outside of having the requisite staffing.

Ok, sure. I’m on board with that. Except businesses will probably have to pay higher taxes to support such a scheme. Businesses are the wealth drivers of our economy (as we’re so often told). Money either comes from taxes on them, or on taxes on the people that they pay. It doesn’t really matter. It’s all the same money.

>It’s all the same money.

Exactly, which is why tasking every business with calculating risks of pregnancies and funding for them is dumb. Just do it on a nation level, or at least state level.

Sure. Which is the most pallatable to the US legislature to actually make this happen?

It works in the UK and Europe because there is _some_ understanding that a prospering society at all levels can't be achieved by blind liberalism and some collective risk sharing is actually a good thing.