Demonstration for parental leave in the European Parliament
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption
leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and
"paternity leave" to describe separate family leave available to either
parent to care for small children.
In some countries and jurisdictions, "family leave" also includes leave
provided to care for ill family members. Often, the minimum benefits
and eligibility requirements are stipulated by law.
Unpaid parental or family leave is provided when an employer is
required to hold an employee's job while that employee is taking leave.
Paid parental or family leave provides paid time off
work to care for or make arrangements for the welfare of a child or
dependent family member. The three most common models of funding are
social insurance/social security (where employees, employers, or
taxpayers in general contribute to a specific public fund), employer
liability (where the employer must pay the employee for the length of
leave), and mixed policies that combine both social security and
employer liability.
Parental leave has been available as a legal right and/or governmental program for many years, in one form or another. In 2014, the International Labour Organization reviewed parental leave policies in 185 countries and territories, and found that all countries except Papua New Guinea have laws mandating some form of parental leave.
A different study showed that of 186 countries examined, 96% offered
some pay to mothers during leave, but only 44% of those countries
offered the same for fathers. The United States, Suriname, Papua New Guinea, and a few island countries in the Pacific Ocean are the only countries in the United Nations that do not require employers to provide paid time off for new parents.
Private employers sometimes provide either or both unpaid and
paid parental leave outside of or in addition to any legal mandate.
Economic models
Benefits of universal, paid parental leave
Capabilities approach
Jeremiah Carter and Martha Nussbaum have developed a political model known as the capabilities approach, where basic freedoms and opportunities are included in economic assessments of a country's well-being, in addition to GDP. Nussbaum proposed 11 central capabilities
as the minimum requirement for a decent society. In Nussbaum's model,
states should provide the resources and freedoms to ensure people have
the opportunity to achieve a minimum threshold of each central
capability. Universal, paid parental leave is an example resource states
can provide so people have the option of starting a family while also
working; for instance, under capacity 10 (control of one's environment), the state has a responsibility to ensure all people have "the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others."
Income and workforce
Paid parental leave incentivizes labor market attachment for women both before and after birth, affecting GDP and national productivity, as the workforce is larger. Parental leave increases income at the household level as well by supporting dual-earner families.
Paid parental leave incentivizes
childbirth, which affects the future workforce. It is thus argued that
paid parental leave, in contrast to unpaid parental leave, is harmful to
children's welfare because in countries with an aging workforce or countries with sub-replacement fertility,
children are born not because the parents want the child and can meet
the child's needs but because children are expected to support their
parents. Some see children as responsible for supporting all those in
older generations in the society (not just the child's specific
parents); their earnings are expected not to be saved for the children's
own old age, but to be spent on the earlier generations' demand for social security and pensions for which there was inadequate savings.
Challenges to universal, paid leave
Statistical discrimination
The neoclassical model of labor markets
predicts that, if the cost of hiring women of child-bearing years is
anticipated to increase (either because the employer is mandated to pay
for maternity leave or because she will be absent from work on public
leave), then the "demand" for women in the labor market will decrease.
While gender discrimination is illegal, without some kind of remedy the
neoclassical model would predict "statistical discrimination" against
hiring women of child-bearing years.
To counteract this, some countries have introduced policies to increase
rates of paternity leave to spread the cost impact more evenly across
the labor market.
Occupational sex segregation
If
women take long parental leaves, the neoclassical model would predict
that their lifetime earnings and opportunities for promotion will be
less than their male or childfree counterparts—the "motherhood penalty". Women may seek out employment sectors that are "family-friendly" (i.e., with generous parental leave policies), resulting in occupational sex segregation. Nielsen, Simonsen, and Verner examine what the different outcomes for women in Denmark are between the "family-friendly" and the "non-family-friendly" sector. In Denmark, the public sector
is "family-friendly" because of its generous leave and employee
benefits; workers decide which sector to work in based on their
preferences and opportunities. The study found that, while in the
"family-friendly" sector there was basically no wage loss related to
taking parental leave, women did have consistent earnings loss in the
"non-family-friendly" private sector for one year's leave.
Cost
Universal, paid parental leave can be privately funded (i.e., corporations are mandated to absorb the cost of paid parental time off as part of employee benefits) or publicly funded (i.e., transferred directly to workers on leave, like unemployment insurance).
Concerns about private funding include the statistical discrimination
described above as well as the costs to smaller businesses. Datta Gupta,
Smith, & Verneer found in 2008 that, while publicly funded parental
leave has benefits, it is very expensive to fund and question if it is
the most cost-effective use of funds.
Criticism of the 'Father Quota'
The father's quota is a policy implemented by some countries or
companies that reserves a part of the parental leave or other types of
family leave for the father. If the father does not take this reserved
part of leave, the family loses that leave period—that is, it cannot be
transferred to the mother.
Given the high rates of women's participation in the formal labor force
in many parts of the world, there is increasing interest among social
scientists and policymakers in supporting a more equal division of labor
between partners. Some critics question whether such policies are
evidence-based and express concern that they are "a social experiment,
the effects of which are unknown".
However, other studies have shown that paternity leave improves bonds
between fathers and children and also helps mitigate the wage gap women
face after taking maternity leave.
Other psychological perspectives summarise evidence and find that the
role of a father in child development is very similar to that of a
mother, counteracting the concern that greater paternal involvement in
childcare could lead to unforeseen negative consequences.
Criticism is often less concerned about the idea of paternity leave
itself, but condemns the fact that father's quota policies do not allow
that time to be allocated to the mother instead. Critics argue that the
quota harms mothers, depriving them of much needed leave, trivializes
biological realities, and is an example of discrimination against
mothers.
Comparison between countries
Comparison between countries in term of employee benefits
to leave for parents are often attempted, but these are very difficult
to make because of the complexity of types of leave available and
because terms such as maternity leave, paternity leave, pre-natal leave,
post-natal leave, parental leave, family leave and home-care leave,
have different meanings in different jurisdictions. Such terms may often
be used incorrectly. Comparing the length of maternity leave
(which is common in international rankings) may say very little about
the situation of a family in a specific country. A country for example
may have a long maternity leave but a short (or non existent) parental
or family leave, or vice versa. In the European Union,
each country has its own policies, which vary significantly, but all
the EU members must abide by the minimum standards of the Pregnant Workers Directive and Parental Leave Directive.
Sometimes there is a distortion in how maternity leave is
reported and delimitated from other types of leave, especially in
jurisdictions where there is no clear legal term of "maternity leave",
and such term is used informally to denote either the minimum or the
maximum period of parental leave reserved by quota to the mother.
Some countries may be listed artificially as having more or less
generous benefits. Sweden is sometimes listed in international
statistics as having 480 days' "maternity leave", although these days include parental leave.
As such, Sweden is often quoted as having an exceptionally long leave,
although there are several countries with significantly longer leave,
when maternity leave and other leaves are added, where a parent may take
leave until a child is 3 years of age.
Effects of parental leave
Typically,
the effects of parental leave are improvements in prenatal and
postnatal care, including a decrease in infant mortality.
The effects of parental leave on the labor market include an increase
in employment, changes in wages, and fluctuations in the rate of
employees returning to work. Leave legislation can also impact fertility
rates.
Effects on the labor market
A study in Germany found that wages decreased by 18 percent for every year an employee spends on parental leave.
However, after the initial decrease in wages, the employee's salary
rebounds faster than the salary of someone not offered parental leave.
A study of California's leave policy, the first state in the U.S. to
require employers to offer paid parental leave, showed that wages did
increase.
Parental leave can lead to greater job security.
Studies differ in how this helps return to work after taking time off.
Some studies show that if a parent is gone for more than a year after
the birth of a child, it decreases the possibility that he or she will
return.
Other studies of shorter leave periods show that parents no longer need
to quit their jobs in order to care for their children, so employment
return increases.
It does not appear that parental leave policies have had a
significant effect on the gender wage gap, which has remained relatively
steady since the late 1980s, despite increasing adoption of parental
leave policies.
Maternity leave and its effects
In the U.S., while the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
(FMLA) allows for unpaid parental leave, parents often do not utilize
this eligibility to its fullest extent as it is unaffordable. As a
result, some studies show that the FMLA has had a limited impact on how
much leave new parents take.
Though specific amounts can vary, having a child (including the cost of
high-quality childcare) costs families approximately $11,000 in the
first year.
These high costs contribute to new mothers in the United States
returning to work quicker than new mothers in European countries;
approximately one third of women in the United States return to work
within three months of giving birth, compared to approximately five per
cent in the U.K., Germany, and Sweden, and just over half of mothers in the United States with a child under the age of one work.
There is some evidence that legislation for parental leave raises
the likelihood of women returning to their previous jobs as opposed to
finding a new job. This rise is thought to fall to between 10% and 17%.
Simultaneously, there is a decrease in the percentage of women who find
new jobs, which falls between 6% and 11%. Thus, such legislation appears
to increase how many women return to work post-childbirth by around 3%
or 4%.
Additionally, it appears that parental leave policies do allow
women to stay home longer before returning to work as the probability of
returning to an old job falls in the second month after childbirth
before dramatically rising in the third month. Although this legislation
thus appears to have minimal effect on women choosing to take leave, it
does appear to increase the time women take in leave.
Maternity leave legislation could pose benefits or harm to
employers. The main potential drawback of mandated leave is its
potential to disrupt productive activities by raising rates of employee
absenteeism. With mandated leave for a certain period of time and facing
prolonged absence of the mothers in the workplace, firms will be faced
with two options: hire a temp (which could involve training costs) or
function with a missing employee. Alternatively, these policies could be
positive for employers who previously did not offer leave because they
were worried about attracting employees who were disproportionately
likely to use maternity leave. Thus, there is potential for these
policies to correct market failures.
A drawback of rising leave at the societal level, however, is the
resulting decrease in female labor supply. In countries with a high
demand for labor, including many present-day countries with aging
populations, a smaller labor supply is unfavorable.
Something important to note for all the research cited above is
that the results typically depend on how leave coverage is defined, and
whether the policies are for unpaid or paid leave. Policies guaranteeing
paid leave are considered by some to be dramatically more effective
than unpaid-leave policies.
For women individually, long breaks in employment, as would come
from parental leave, negatively affects their careers. Longer gaps are
associated with reduced lifetime earnings and lower pension
disbursements as well as worsened career prospects and reduced earnings.
Due to these drawbacks, some countries, notably Norway, have expanded
family policy initiatives to increase the father's quota and expand
childcare in an effort to work towards greater gender equality.
According to a 2016 study, the expansion of government-funded
maternity leave in Norway from 18 to 35 weeks led mothers to spend more
time at home without a reduction in family income.
Father spending time with daughter
Paternity leave and its effects
Although parental leave is increasingly granted to fathers, mothers continue to take the majority of guaranteed parental leave. When guaranteed leave is unpaid, research indicates that men's leave usage is unaffected.
In Germany, where parental leave is guaranteed for both parents, the
financial incentive, alone, was not enough to encourage fathers to take
paternal leave.
While uncommon on a world scale, some countries do reserve parts of the
paid leave for the father, meaning it can't be transferred to the
mother and lapses unless he uses it. Among the earliest countries to
actively push for increased usage of paternity leave are the Nordic
welfare states, starting with Sweden making parental leave gender
neutral in 1974 and soon followed by Iceland, Denmark, Norway and
Finland. These countries lack a unified concept of paternity leave, each
imposing different conditions, ratios and timescales, but are regarded
as among the most generous in the world.
Partly in an initiative to combat the "Motherhood penalty," Norway in 1993 initiated a policy change to incentivize paternal leave, the so-called "father's quota",
and Sweden followed suit in 1995. This means a certain number of
parental leave-days can only be used by the father, and are otherwise
lost. In countries in which leave entitlements include a father's quota,
there has been a pronounced impact, with the quota being credited for
increasing paternal involvement and challenging gender roles within the
family, promoting a more equal division of labor.
To evaluate this change, Rønsen & Kitterød looked at the rate and
timing of women's return to work after giving birth, and the effect on
this of the new parental leave policy. In their 2015 study, Rønsen &
Kitterød found women in Norway returned to work significantly faster after the policy change. However, public or subsidized daycare was greatly expanded at the same time, so Rønsen & Kitterød did not find that the "father's quota" was solely responsible for the timing of work entry. But it can be understood to have an effect on division of household labor by gender when both parents can take time to care for a new baby.
Another impact from fathers taking more leave is that in Norway
it has been shown to have the potential to either decrease or increase
the time women take, depending on whether the mother's and father's
childcare are seen as substitutes or complements.
If substitute goods, mothers are able to return to work sooner as
fathers take some of the childcare responsibility. Research has
suggested a class element is at play: middle class fathers consider
themselves a suitable alternative to the mother as primary caregiver,
while working class men may see themselves more as supporters of their
partner during her leave. Consequently, middle class fathers may be more
likely to use their allotment of leave right after the mother returns
to work, while working class fathers may opt to take their leave during
the mother's leave. In some cases, longer leave for fathers can motivate mothers to also stay home.
Fathers tend to use less parental leave than mothers in the
United States as well as in other countries where paid leave is
available, and this difference may have factors other than the financial constraints which impact both parents. Bygren and Duvander,
looking at the use of parental leave by fathers in Sweden, concluded
that fathers' workplace characteristics (including the size of the
workplace, whether there were more men or women in the workplace, and
whether the workplace was part of the private or public sector)
influenced the length of parental leave for fathers, as did the presence
of other men who had taken parental leave at an earlier point in time.
As of 2016 paternity leave accounts for 25% of paid parental leave in
Sweden.
Length of leave
Family policy during World War II when women were recruited into the workplace
In 2013, Joseph, Pailhé, Recotillet, and Solaz published a natural experiment evaluating a 2004 policy change in France.
They were interested in the economic effects of full-time, short paid
parental leave. Before the reform, women had a mandatory two-month
parental leave, and could take up to three years' unpaid parental leave
with their job guaranteed, though most women only took the two months.
The new policy, complément libre choix d'activité (CLCA),
guarantees six months of paid parental leave. The authors found positive
effects on employment: compared to women in otherwise similar
circumstances before the reform, first-time mothers who took the paid
leave after the reform were more likely to be employed after their
leave, and less likely to stay out of the labor force. The authors point
to similar results of full-time, short paid parental leave observed in
Canada in 2008 by Baker and Milligan, and in Germany in 2009 by Kluve and Tamm. However, Joseph et al.
also found that wages were lower (relative to women before the reform)
for moderately and highly educated women after the leave, which could be
because the women returned to work part-time or because of a "motherhood penalty,"
where employers discriminate against mothers, taking the six-month
leave as a "signal" that the woman will not be as good of an employee
because of her mothering responsibilities.
Rasmussen analyzed a similar natural experiment in Denmark with a policy change in 1984 where parental leave increased from 14 to 20 weeks.
Rasmussen found the increased length of parental leave had no negative
effect on women's wages or employment and in the short run (i.e., 12
months) it had a positive effect on women's wages, compared to the
shorter leave. There was no difference on children's long-term
educational outcomes before and after the policy change.
Effects on health and development
A Harvard report cited research showing paid maternity leave "facilitates breastfeeding and reduces risk of infection" but is not associated with changes in immunization rate. This research also found that countries with parental leave had lower infant mortality rates. Returning to work within 12 weeks was also associated with fewer regular medical checkups.
Data from 16 European countries during the period 1969–1994 revealed
that the decrease of infant mortality rates varied based on length of
leave. A 10-week leave was associated with a 1–2% decrease; a 20-week
leave with 2–4%; and 30 weeks with 7–9%.
The United States, which does not have a paid parental leave law,
ranked 56th in the world in 2014 in terms of infant mortality rates,
with 6.17 deaths per every 1,000 children born. The research did not find any infant health benefits in countries with unpaid parental leave.
Paid leave, particularly when available prior to childbirth, had a
significant effect on birth weight. The frequency of low birth rate
decreases under these policies, which likely contributes to the decrease
in infant mortality rates as low birth weight is strongly correlated
with infant death. However, careful analysis reveals that increased
birth weight is not the sole reason for the decreased mortality rate.
According to a 2016 study, the expansion of government-funded
maternity leave in Norway from 18 to 35 weeks had little effect on
children's schooling.
However, when infants bond and have their needs met quickly by
caregivers (mothers, fathers, etc.) they will become confident and be
prepared to have healthy relationships throughout their life.
Children whose mothers worked in the first 9 months were found to
be less ready for school at the age of 3 years. The effects of mothers'
employment appeared to be the most detrimental when employment started
between the sixth and ninth month of life. The reasons for this were
uncertain, but there is conjecture that there was something unusual for
the group of mothers who returned to work in this time period as they
represented only 5% of all families studied. Negative impacts in terms
of school-readiness were most pronounced when the mother worked at least
30 hours per week. These findings were complicated by many factors,
including race, poverty, and how sensitive the mother was considered.
The effects were also greater in boys, which is explained by the fact
that many analysts consider boys more vulnerable to stress in early
life.
The same Harvard report also linked paid parental leave and a
child's psychological health. It found that parents with paid parental
leave had closer bonds with their children.
Based on research of heterosexual couples, better immersion of the
father in the process of raising a child can lead to improved
development outcomes for the child and a better relationship between the
parents.
In recent years, various OECD countries drew attention to the topic,
especially to the time of the parental leave taken by fathers, and
concluded that short-term paternal leaves still lead to positive
outcomes for the child's development. Families do take into account
relative income levels of each parent when planning for parental leave;
the partner earning a lower wage may be more likely to take parental
leave.
There is also often workplace pressure on men not to take paternity
leave, or to take less than the maximum time allowed. To counteract
these pressures and encourage paternity leave, some countries have
experimented with making paternity leave mandatory or otherwise
incentivizing it.
There are also observable improvements in the mental health of
mothers when they are able to return to work later. While the
probability of experiencing postpartum depression had no significant
statistical change, longer leave (leave over 10 weeks) was associated
with decreased severity of depression and decreased number of
experienced symptoms. This reduction was, on average, between 5% and
10%.
Studies looking for a connection between paid parental leave have
shown conflicting results. Some research looked at women 25–34 years
old, who are more likely to be affected by leave legislation. Fertility
rates peaked for those between 25–29 and 30–34 across European
countries.
Conversely, however, research in Spain found that after the
introduction of two weeks of paid paternity leave, fertility rates fell,
suggesting that when fathers are more engaged in raising children, they
may become more aware of the challenges; their priorities may shift to
quality over quantity of children; and/or that mothers are better able
to remain connected to the workforce.
A study of a 2012 law in Sweden that allowed fathers to take up
to 30 days of paid family leave in the first year after the birth of the
child at the same time as the mother was on leave led to substantial
improvements in the mental and physical health of mothers.
Effects on economy
The
economic consequences of parental leave policies are subject to
controversy. According to a 2016 study, the expansion of
government-funded maternity leave in Norway from 18 to 35 weeks had net
costs that amounted to 0.25% of GDP, negative redistribution properties
and implied a considerable increase in taxes at a cost to economic
efficiency. In the U.S., paid family leave tends to lead to a higher employee retention rate and higher incomes for families.
Evidence from selected countries in Western Europe suggests that
moderate levels of parental leave can encourage mothers to reenter the
work force after having children, promoting national economic
development.
Effects on gender equality
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Symbol for gender equality
Parental leave policies have an impact on gender equality as it relates to parenting and are therefore used by various countries as a tool to promote gender equality.
Many countries/regions have implemented paid parental leave policies
for both parents, which promotes gender equality, while a minority of
countries, like the United States, only have unpaid maternity leave.
As more women have joined the formal labor force, the lack of
men's participation in parenting has been called out as a key example of
gender inequality. Various studies highlight the importance of
egalitarian parental leave policies in achieving equal distribution of
childcare between parents.
Moreover, when discussing parental leave policies, the focus is often
on comparing improvements in maternity leave policies to what was
available in the past, rather than comparing the impact of diverse
policies around the world that distribute parental leave differently
between both parents.
Statistics show a positive correlation between maternity leave
policies and women's employment, but the causation relationship cannot
be firmly established. While many believe that maternity leave policies encourage women's participation in the labor force, Anita Nyberg
suggests that it is the other way around: that development of maternity
leave policies was a response to women's participation in the labor
force.
Economist Christopher Ruhm argues that men's involvement in
childcare at the same level as women is essential for eliminating
differences in gender roles. Thus, an increase in the use of parental
leave by women (and lack thereof by men) will have a negative impact on
gender equality. Inversely, an increase in the use of leave by men will
have a positive impact.
Transferable leave policies appear to be fair and equal in theory,
since they do not specifically allocate leave focused on childcare to
women and even allow the family to choose. In practice, however, it
leads to the majority of available parental leave being used by women. The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights,
summarizing different studies, states that there is only limited
evidence to support a relationship between the father's quota and gender
equality; the few relevant studies point in different directions; the association's former President, psychologist and former Chairman of UNICEF Torild Skard, argues that psychological research does not support the assertion that mothers can be replaced by fathers in the first year.
Through examination of leave policies in twenty-one European
countries by describing the existing policy schemes' duration, payment,
and transferability, Carmen Castro-Garcia created the Parental Leave
Equality Index (PLEI), which can predict the participation of each
parent in raising their children based on their gender and the existing
policy regarding parental leave.
His model shows that a policy that provides equal, nontransferable, and
well-paid leave for each parent (which no country has at the moment)
will best encourage men's and women's equal participation in childcare.
European Union
The European Union recognizes the ability for countries to utilize varying parental leave policies to affect labor force participation, the labor market, maternal health, the work–life balance of parents, and the physical and emotional development of children.
And by affecting the work-life balance of parents, it may reduce the
barriers to participation of both parents in parenting. More
specifically, paternity and parental leave policies are key to
encouraging fathers' involvement in parenting the child.
European Union flag
In 2014, the European Parliament
concluded that, by promoting the uptake of parental leave and paternity
leave by fathers, governments can aim to facilitate a more gender-equal
distribution of care work, support mothers' return to the labor market,
equalize the circumstances in which women and men enter the labor
market, and improve the work–life balance of families.
Findings by the European Parliament in 2015 found that 18 of the
EU-28 countries offer paternity leave, and that the EU-average length is
12.5 days, ranging from one day in Italy to 64 working days in Slovenia.
For 23 EU member states, on average only 10 percent of fathers take
parental leave, ranging from 0.02 percent in Greece to 44 per cent in Sweden.
The gender difference in the employment rate is representative of
the gender employment gap; filling this gap is an important objective
in promoting gender equality and is a part of the Europe 2020 target of an employment rate of 75 per cent for both men and women. The uptake of leave by fathers can reduce the motherhood penalty
by enabling mothers to return to the labor market, as illustrated by
studies that have shown that the involvement of fathers in childcare has
a positive effect on mothers' full-time employment.
Reduction of the gender pay gap
(GPG) is also an important goal for the EU. In 2014 the GPG in the
EU-28 was 16.1 percent, which means that for every euro men got paid in
the EU, women got paid 83.9 cents. (The GPG exists equally after correction for occupation and education level.)
An study done on the gender pension gap estimates the gap to be around
40 percent, which is more than twice the gender pay gap.
Increased leave uptake by fathers can reduce the length of career
interruptions for women, reduce part-time work by women and potentially
reduce the GPG, all of which are leading causes of the gender pension
gap.
Nordic countries
The advancement of gender equality has also been on the political agenda of Nordic countries
for decades. Although all Nordic countries have extended the total
leave period, their policies towards father's quota are different.
In Iceland, each parent receives paid leaves, and an additional three months can be divided between them however they like.
In Norway, parents are offered 49 weeks of (combined) paid parental
leave with their full salary or 59 weeks with 80 per cent salary, but
only 15 of those weeks can be used by the father (up from 10 weeks prior
to 2018). In Sweden,
90 days cannot be transferred from one parent to the other—i.e. each
parent gets at least 90 days of parental leave, thus the quota applies
equally to both parents and is not specifically fathers. The only Nordic country that does not provide fathers with a quota is Denmark.
However, the dual earner/dual care model seems to be the direction of
all the Nordic countries are moving in the construction of their
parental leave systems.
A study done in Norway found that when parental leave is granted
for both parents, there is still gender inequality observed in the form
of mothers being more likely to have part-time jobs compared to their
partners.
Since then, the government has provided child care support for parents
who want them in order to encourage mothers to return to full-time jobs
earlier, and it is effective to a certain extent.
Germany
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Mother spending time with her child
In Germany, original laws tackling gender inequality with respect to parenting date back to 1986 in both Eastern and Western Germany, where one parent could take up to two years of leave after the birth of the child with a maximum allowance. According to a study done in 2006, 97% of the people who took the leave were mothers.
In 2007, declining birth rates
and demographic change led to a new law, the "Parenting Benefits and
Parental Leave Law" (Bundeselterngeld- und Elternzeit-Gesetz).
This change in family policy had mainly two aims: to reduce parents'
financial loss in the first year after childbirth, and to encourage
fathers to actively participate in childcare by taking parental leave.
With this shift in paradigm, a better work-life balance and less
support for the male breadwinner model was targeted. This was part of a
"sustainable family policy" promoted by German unification and European
integration with the underlying objective to raise birth rates by
providing financial incentive.
The law's impact was mainly perceived positively with men
reporting high motivation to take leave. So far this has not been
reflected in official statistics, but Susanne Vogl concludes that if
there is a general willingness of men to participate in parental leave
the new Parenting Benefits regulations will help facilitate the actual
decision to take a leave.
United States
Even though, according to a survey conducted by WorldatWork
and Mercer in 2017, 93% of Americans agree that mothers should receive
paid parental leave and 85% agree that fathers should receive paid
parental leave, as of October 2018 the United States does not have nationwide laws that guarantee paid parental leave to its workforce; however, certain states have passed laws providing paid workers with such rights. As of July 2019, eight states (California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Oregon) and the District of Columbia
have enacted laws that grant parental leave as part of state paid
family and medical leave insurance laws, with 4 being effective
currently. In states without such laws, a proportion of companies do
provide paid parental leave.
According to Eileen Appelbaum, the lack of parental leave
policies results in many low-income families struggling to support
themselves financially if both parents are off work. As a result, many
mothers leave work to take care of their children while the father
remains at work to financially support the family. This reinforces gender roles and gender inequality.
Australia
The Australian government provides paid parental leave for both parents, but more for the mother compared to the father. Michael Bittman stated that the reason they provide parental leave is unique in that they view children as "public goods" and, therefore, the state is responsible to provide and support the child.
But like most places around the world, studies done in Australia show
that the inequality still persists within the family, and that women
spend more time doing unpaid work (like parenting) compared to men.
China
According to a study done by Nan Jia, during the Maoist era,
women's full participation in the labor force played a key role in the
Chinese government's efforts to advance women's position in society. To
facilitate women's labor force participation, the Chinese government
initiated a series of measures to mitigate the work–family conflict that
women face during pregnancy and childbirth. These measures included an entitlement to 56 days of paid maternity leave.
In the post-reform era, a series of new regulations have been
introduced to protect women's employment and reproductive rights in the
new market economy. The Labor Law
adopted in 1995 ensured that women and men have equal employment rights
and that employers will not lay off women employees or lower their
wages for reasons of marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave, or
breastfeeding.
The Labor Contract Law enacted in 2008 introduced the provision that
prohibits employers from unilaterally terminating labor contracts with
women employees who are pregnant, give birth, and care for a baby
postpartum. Thus, under the Labor Law and Labor Contract Law, women
employees are entitled to job-protected maternity leave.
The post-reform era saw further improvements in maternity
benefits. The length of paid maternity leave was extended from fifty-six
days prior to reform, to ninety days in 1988, and to 98 days in 2012.
Most recently in 2016, paid maternity leave was extended to a minimum
of 128 days after the long-standing one-child policy was replaced with a
policy that encourages each couple to have two children. This latest
extension of paid leave aims to increase fertility rates and slow the
population aging process.
None of the policies directly aim to tackle gender roles and gender
inequality, but rather to solve immediate problems the country is facing
at the time.
Effect on relationships
A 2020 study in the Economic Journal
found that reforms in Iceland that incentivized fathers to take
parental leave reduced the likelihood of parents separating. The
strongest impact was on relationships where the mother was more educated
than or equally educated as the father.
Private parental leave
Some businesses adopt policies that are favorable to workers and public opinion. In their study of maternity leave policies in the United States, Kelly and Dobbin found that public policy surrounding pregnancy as a temporary disability (for instance, California's Family Temporary Disability Insurance program) gave rise to business practices that included maternity leave as a benefit.
Companies are starting to offer paid parental leave as a benefit
to some American workers, seeing a profitable aspect of doing so,
including: reduced turnover costs, increased productivity from workers, and increased rates of retention
among women after childbirth. Some see the increase in paid parental
leave as indicative of companies reaching out to women, as more women
are working and returning to work after having children, and by doing so
these companies generate positive publicity as employers with
family-friendly workplaces. Working Mother
magazine publishes a list of the 100 Best Companies for working mothers
each year, a list which is noted not only by the readership of the
magazine, but also by corporate America and increasingly by researchers
and policy institutes as well. The Institute for Women's Policy Research issued a report in 2009 encouraging Congress to give federal workers four weeks of paid parental leave. The report cited statistics from the Working Mother
100 Best Company list, using private sector corporations as examples of
substantial increase in the retention of new mothers after instituting a
longer maternity leave policy. The report also noted that it would take
newer workers four years to accrue enough paid leave (sick leave and
annual leave) to equal the 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave provided
under the FMLA, and that private sector companies that offer paid
parental leave have a significant advantage over the federal government
in the recruitment and retention of younger workers who may wish to have
children.
As of February 2018, multinational companies such as Deloitte, TIAA and Cisco were providing parental leave regardless of the parent's gender.
By country
Countries were mothers are and are not guaranteed an equivalent position after maternity leave as of 2017.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women introduces "maternity leave with pay or with comparable social benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances". The Maternity Protection Convention C 183 adopted in 2000 by International Labour Organization requires 14 weeks of maternity leave as minimum condition.
National laws vary widely according to the politics of each
jurisdiction. As of 2012, only three countries do not mandate paid time
off for new parents: Papua New Guinea, Lesotho, and the United States.
Unless otherwise specified, the information in the tables below is gathered from the most recent International Labour Organization
reports. Maternity leave refers to the legal protection given to the
mother immediately after she gives birth (but may also include a period
before the birth), paternity leave to legal protection given to the
father immediately after the mother gives birth, and parental leave to
protected time for childcare (usually for either parent) either after
the maternity/paternity leave or immediately after birth (for example
when the parent is not eligible for maternity/paternity leave, and/or
where the time is calculated until the child is a specific age—therefore
excluding maternity/paternity leave—usually such jurisdictions protect
the job until the child reaches a specific age.)
Others allow the parental leave to be transferred into part-time work
time. Parental leave is generally available to either parent, except
where specified. Leave marked "Unpaid" indicates the job is protected
for the duration of the leave. Different countries have different rules
regarding eligibility for leave and how long a parent has to have worked
at their place of employment prior to giving birth before they are
eligible for paid leave. In the European Union,
the policies vary significantly by country—with regard to length, to
payment, and to how parental leave relates to prior maternity leave—but
the EU members must abide by the minimum standards of the Pregnant Workers Directive and Parental Leave Directive.
