I’m an American immigrant in Germany, and in my work experience in the US, it’s hit or miss. I worked as a server, in a call center, and as an insurance adjuster. As an insurance adjuster, new fathers got two weeks, and new mothers got six months parental leave. As a server, I worked with a woman who came back the day after giving birth. I worked at three different restaurants, and not a one offered anything for parental leave outside of FMLA without pay (nor did the call center). New mothers have the option for disability, but that’s not full pay.

It’s definitely a good job vs. bad job thing, which is really fucked up, IMO, because the “bad jobs” are the ones where people actually need the money/time without paying for childcare. As an insurance adjuster, I could have relatively easily taken unpaid time off, as long as I had warning, because my pay was pretty high for my area (for heavily litigated, high value commercial liability claims, like asbestos exposures- an auto or homeowners insurance adjuster doesn’t make as much). As a server, missing one shift was difficult.

I’m currently working part time in a bakery in Germany, while getting my master’s degree. They just made me a wedding cake for free, which blew my mind. Most of the Germans I’ve told about it feel like it’s expected. That’s not a right that Europeans have, obviously, but workers here are generally valued more by their companies, even in bad jobs (which a part time student job almost always is in the US).

For another example, my boss changed the schedule last week, and I asked in our group chat if anyone could cover my new shift. My boss realized she hadn’t asked me first, and took me off the schedule for that shift. I’ve been called in for a shift in the US with two hours notice and told that if I couldn’t make it work, I would be fired. They can’t do that here because everyone has contracts. They could only fire me without three months notice if I committed a crime against them (because it’s a bakery, but a teacher convicted of, say, pedophilia which occurred outside of their work hours or a heavy equipment operator with a DUI could still be fired for those, because they’re relevant crimes to the job).