Work or baby? Maternity leave in the U.S. lodging industry

Maternity leave policies can have a profound impact on working mothers’ well-being and career advancement. While U.S. maternity leave practices lag behind most developed countries, no study has looked into this issue in the lodging context, leaving an important research gap that needs to be addressed. This research note takes a mixed-methods approach to study maternity leave policies and practices in the U.S. lodging industry via both desk-top research and interviews with human resource managers and working mothers in the lodging industry. This study fills in an important literature gap on current maternity leave policy and practices in U.S. lodging organizations and aspires to stimulate future research on maternity leave policies at the individual, organizational, and societal levels.