Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has posted a Mother's Day appeal for federal and corporate policies to benefit working parents, including a minimum wage increase, mandated paid parental leave and affordable childcare.
Sandberg, an influential voice in corporate America and author of the successful 2013 book Lean In, said the US government and employers must do more to help parents, especially single mothers, who are struggling to provide for their children while assuring their safety and well-being.
"It's time for our public policies to catch up with what our families deserve and our values demand," Sandberg, a 47-year-old widowed mother of two, wrote on her personal Facebook page. "We all have a responsibility to help mothers as well as fathers balance their responsibilities at work and home."
One of the most important actions the government could take is to help millions of families living near the poverty line by raising the federal minimum wage, Sandberg said.
More than 40 per cent of American mothers are the primary breadwinners for their families, she said, and many of them are the only breadwinner.
Sandberg's message was accompanied by a picture of her with her mother and mother-in-law on the day of her wedding to former SurveyMonkey Chief Executive Officer Dave Goldberg, who died in a 2015 exercise treadmill accident.
Sandberg called for more protections for mothers, fathers, gay and transgender parents as well as for adoptive parents who seek a leave of absence from their job to care for a child or other family member.
Sandberg, one of the wealthiest American women with a net worth of $US1.38 billion ($A1.87 billion), said the United States is one of the only developed countries not to guarantee paid family or maternity leave.
While President Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump has publicly supported paid maternity leave, her father has not articulated a clear position on such benefits, as well as the other issues Sandberg raised in her post.
