“We need every country to be moving in that direction.”

That's an example of "activist journalism" I don't consider to be real journalism. Sex workers should be self-employed, so employer-paid benefits are a fake issue. If sex workers are paying all the taxes that other self-employed people are paying, they should get all the same government benefits as other self-employed people duh.

Sex workers are higher income workers generally. (If not, they probably shouldn't be sex workers.) Higher income workers usually get back much less benefits for their taxes than lower income workers. So most expressions of gratitude by Belgian sex workers for this law are probably highly sarcastic.

Sex workers are definitely not higher income workers generally, but maybe it's different in Belgium vs the US. Most strippers here don't make crazy money, the average OF girl makes barely anything, the vast majority of escorts (whether they work the streets or not) don't make much either. 6 figure sex workers are definitely not the majority.

However I do agree that this is a weird ass law.

The median US income is under $38K. If a sex worker isn't making a lot more than that, I think it's gotta be they are not seeing it as a serious full-time job. Not rare that they are opting for a semi-retired but basic lifestyle, I guess technically that's not higher income. But still high hourly wage.

I think every woman should be able to afford to take time off from their careers to have a child. Especially sex workers.

The interesting question is who pays for it. The article doesn't get into this much but the implication here is in Belgium, this law is for brothels, where women are employees.

In the US, most sex work, including most strippers, are independent contractors and hence their own business owners. Personally, I prefer this kind of model. I want to spend time with women who are there to hustle to build their own brands / businesses versus someone who is just on the clock.

If you want to mandate paid maternal leave, you'd have to end independent contractor work, like they did with strip clubs in California. And I don't think this change has benefited strippers or mongers in CA.

I'd assumed what happened in California is a state finally called bullshit on the clubs controlling the dancers like employees, but not giving them the legal rights of employees. Not legal to dictate someone's work hours, and also charge them to work. Can't see any serious dancer doing it for minimum wage.

I think the move to unionize and treat strippers as employees are a good start. American women in general deserve paid maternity leave.

Prostitution wont be legal any time soon. The push towards conservative DAs will guarantee that.

c

No one has a right to paid maternity leave. Why should anyone else pay for someone to take time off with pay to have a kid? Why is that my responsibility? Everyone who is self-employed has this issue, not just hookers. Sort of seemed like Mother Nature had the idea that people would form committed couples/families and this wouldn't be an issue. Progressives outsmarted Mother Nature lol.

Legalizing prostitution makes it taxable. A government can choose to redistribute some of that tax revenue in the form of paid maternity leave. It doesn't become your responsibility any more than any other sin tax (e.g., alcohol, cigarettes, lottery). You aren't taxed if you don't indulge.

Paid maternity leave will help couples and families stay together. "Mother Nature" will be pleased, progressives will be outraged, sounds like a win-win.