John Oliver celebrates Mother's Day by shaming America on paid maternity leave

John Oliver shames America over its lack of paid maternity leave — (Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

Sunday was Mother's Day, of course, and John Oliver didn't forget. "In America, there is nothing we wouldn't do for moms — apart from one major thing," he said on Last Week Tonight: Paid time off for new mothers. That puts the U.S. in an exclusive club with Papua New Guinea.

Since the early 1990s, some 60 percent of U.S. women have been eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave — a law that was greeted with apocalyptic warnings in 1993 — but new mothers scrambling to piece together time to heal and bond with their infant is "not how this is supposed to work," Oliver said. California enacted partial paid leave in 2002, and based on its experience, mandatory maternity leave is like hockey on TV at a bar: "It's not hurting anyone, and a couple of people are actually really into it."

Then came the shaming. More than 180 nations give mothers paid time off after childbirth, Oliver said, and "until we, as a country, do something to address this, this should be the only message that we're allowed to send on Mother's Day." The mocking commercial that follows is disturbingly accurate and hilariously awful. "Remember, not only can you balance work and family — you have to," the cheerful male narrator tells new mothers. "You deserve the very best, moms, you're just not gonna get it." Happy Mother's Day. —Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.