The dichotomy between how America seems to set the standards in medicine, finance, etc. but SO behind in things like parental leave, baby friendly requirements, etc.
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Other comments are missing the point. This isn’t really an economic issue, it’s a government one. The federalist nature of the US government means that the feds can create laws for things that need to be consistent across all states. Things like quality of food, medicine, and some road laws. This is why we have some government institutions like the FDA for example.
But labor laws become tricky due to the extreme geographic diversity of the country. You have cities like NYC that have a population greater than ~half of the countries in the EU. You also have states like Wyoming, which has a population smaller than the number of people subscribed to this subreddit. The feds would have to pass laws that would work for every state, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Obviously this would be extremely difficult and a waste of time, so the feds don’t do this. Instead they turn the power over to the states to do this as well. They let Wyoming pass laws that work for Wyoming, and New York pass laws for New York.
The USA will probably never pass similar laws at a federal level, because it doesn’t need to. Personally, I get 1 month of paid paternity leave, not because it’s mandated by the government, but because my company wants their benefits to be competitive.
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