The original article doesn’t mention mandatory, nor does most anyone commenting on social media platforms say mandatory. The original article goes out of its way to mention exception for specific federal government jobs, but never mentions mandatory. They just say that there’s no parental leave in the US except for some fed jobs. In fact, rarely do people specify paid as you have. Which makes me second guess a few former employers as to if it was paid or not. I know for sure it was paid leave at the vast majority of my previous employers

The article you linked (thanks for that, good information in there) says 80% of employers don’t offer leave, which seems crazy because even my first jobs for part time minimum wage offered paid leave for full-time employees. Possibly because I worked for a big chain, maybe it’s the small businesses that don’t offer leave, but is 80% of the US labor force working for small businesses or as contract/gig jobs? Or is this another case of major employers not allowing people to work full time to avoid having to provide them benefits?

Regardless, it’s clear that the right move is mandatory paid parental leave. I know anything companies provide that isn’t legally required can be canceled at a whim.