If any employer wants to bestow generous maternity plans on his/her employees that's their prerogative. I cannot believe that anyone with a modicum of common sense would think that this "trifling nanny-state directive" (as shapka put it) was be good for either families, employees, employers or the economy. It's destructive, feel-good legislation for the nanny staters in the Blue States which hopefully will secede from the union as quickly as possible.
Oh I agree. The point I was trying to make is that once the government gets involved, it's really out of the question for an employer to be as generous.