--- description: It's not just good for women, it's good for business title: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki: Paid Maternity Leave is Good for Business image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt307af22e73d5133f/69876f8ccd1bba16826f43f4/456940420.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # YouTube CEO: America Needs Paid Maternity Leave by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 17, 2014 10:09 PM CUT  Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki speak onstage during "Who Owns Your Screen?" at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on October 9, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Kimberly White--Getty Images for Vanity Fair) Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki speak onstage during "Who Owns Your Screen?" at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on October 9, 2014 in San Francisco, California. (Kimberly White--Getty Images for Vanity Fair)Kimberly White—Getty Images for Vanity Fair by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 17, 2014 10:09 PM CUT YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki wrote an op-ed in the [Wall Street _Journal_](http://www.wsj.com/articles/susan-wojcicki-paid-maternity-leave-is-good-for-business-1418773756 "undefined") Wednesday reminding everyone that paid maternity leave isn’t just good for women, it’s good for business. She cited a 2011 survey from [California’s Center for Economic and Policy Research](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/paid-family-leave-1-2011.pdf "undefined") that found that, after California implemented paid leave, [91% ](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/paid-family-leave-1-2011.pdf "undefined")of businesses said the policy had either a positive effect on profitability, or no effect at all. Wojcicki, who was the first Google employee to go on maternity leave and now runs YouTube, which is owned by Google, says she’s seen this firsthand: --- > “” --- As Wojcicki notes, paid maternity leave can reduce risk of post-partum depression, keep babies healthy, and encourage mothers to stay in the workplace, yet only 12% of private workers and 5% of low-income workers in the U.S. have access to these benefits. Every other developed nation in the world has government-mandated paid maternity leave, and when the [UN](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/wcms%5F242615.pdf "undefined")‘s International Labor Organization surveyed the maternity leave policies of 185 nations, the U.S. was one of two countries that don’t guarantee paid maternity leave. Papua New Guinea is the other. She wants America to get cracking on paid maternity leave, stat. \[[WSJ](http://www.wsj.com/articles/susan-wojcicki-paid-maternity-leave-is-good-for-business-1418773756 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3637962/youtube-ceo-america-needs-paid-maternity-leave/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3637962/youtube-ceo-america-needs-paid-maternity-leave/"},"headline":"YouTube CEO: America Needs Paid Maternity Leave","datePublished":"2014-12-17T22:09:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:29.366Z","description":"It's not just good for women, it's good for business","url":"https://time.com/3637962/youtube-ceo-america-needs-paid-maternity-leave/","keywords":["Living","California","Google","motherhood","YouTube","maternity leave","paid leave"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt307af22e73d5133f/69876f8ccd1bba16826f43f4/456940420.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt307af22e73d5133f/69876f8ccd1bba16826f43f4/456940420.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit - Day 2","caption":"Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit - Day 2","creditText":"Kimberly White—Getty Images for Vanity Fair","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3637962/youtube-ceo-america-needs-paid-maternity-leave/","name":"YouTube CEO: America Needs Paid Maternity Leave"}}]}] ```