Systems of Parental leave in the European Union, Eastern Europe vs. United States

                            Systems of Parental leave in the European Union, Eastern Europe vs. United States     

Systems of Parental leave in the European Union, Eastern Europe vs.

United States of America.

The United States Government needs to provide subsidies to private employers to extend parental leave benefits because it is necessary for the family’s health and welfare as well the employer’s best interest.   The Government should be committed to help working parents balance work and family life in ways that are appropriate and satisfactory to business.

One major problem for most parents, but especially for women, is the need to combine paid employment with family responsibilities. In the European Union and in United States of America increased employment of women forcing to increase the level of support for working parents. The employer or government may be required to provide various types of support, including maternity leave and maternity leave, child care, services, childcare facilities, flexible working hours, etc. There would be considered a component of family policy as parental leave.

There are various types of leave which may be permitted to women (or men and women) during childbirth, adoption or other family needs. Specific types of leave include: maternity, paternity and parental leave.

Maternity leave

Maternity leave - refers to paid leave immediately for prenatal and postnatal periods.  Among the 15 countries of the European Union average leave related to maternity leave (maternity leave, parental leave and child) is 44 weeks. The average duration of paid maternity leave is 36 weeks, usually including maternity leave and maternity leave, with the addition of child care.  In the EU-15 increased the duration of maternity leave from 16 weeks in 1975 to 24 weeks in 1999, although the amount of benefits has increased only from 78% to 84%. Particularly large changes have taken place in Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Sweden.  

Paternity leave

Paternity leave- provided by the employer to the father. Normally such leave is much shorter than maternity leave, and acts as a complement to them.  Paternity leave promotes fathers’ involvement with the child from the beginning. It is recognition of the important role that fathers play in the family and a symbol of the equilibrium that needs to be achieved between work and family life. It also contributes to the development of a gender equality perspective in family life as well as in the workplace.  “Due to European Council Directive, all countries grant fathers the right to parental leave; some countries have reserved part of the parental leave for fathers: Slovenia grants fathers 90 days extra leave.  Policies to promote father involvement in family life and parenting are strongly recommended “(Robila 2009, p 7). Fathers take on an important role in the emotional and intellectual growth of their children and encouraging father involvement with the child from birth increases the probability for further paternal involvement in parenting duties and bonding with the child (Martinet, 2007).  Seven countries in European Union  provide paid paternity leave; Austria - 6 months, Belgium - 3 days, Denmark - 10 days, Spain-2 days.  For new fathers in France there are 11 consecutive days of fully-paid paternity leave. In the case of twins or more, paternity leave is extended to 18 days. To this basic paternity leave fathers may also add three days of “family leave,” for a total of 14 or 21 days. Finnish fathers may take up to four weeks of paternity leave while the mother is taking maternity leave, and may split the paternity leave into as many as three separate sections. Sweden guarantees 2 weeks of paid paternity leave. Beginning July 1, 2008, fathers will have an additional incentive to take parental leave. Couples who share parental leave will receive a “gender equality bonus”.  Two of them - Denmark and Sweden - have increased the duration of leave to care for the child and set him on a month longer, if the father takes a vacation, otherwise, an extra month is will be lost.   (Ray, 2008)

Parental leave

Parental leave is gender-neutral leave, allow parents to take advantage of the benefits and decide among each other how to divide the care for the baby.  Part of such benefits usually takes the mother, providing itself between the physical recovery and recovery after childbirth. Leave for child care (childcare / child rearing leave) - leave that to the number of countries have developed as an addition to maternity leave or as a form of parental leave.

In Eastern Europe, extended family members, particularly grandmas and granddads, are very involved in the nurturing of their grandchildren. When possible, relatives prefer to involve the grandparents in parenting due to reliance, convenience, and financial reasons, but also to keep the family together without involving strangers in to the family and strengthening family ties, as well as to increase the child’s attachment to his or her grandparents. (Robila, 2009) “It is strongly recommended that financial allowances be provided to support the care provided by grandparents, increasing thus the opportunity for social protection and intergenerational solidarity” (Robila, 2009)

Standard for member states in European Union pertaining to parental leave, as well as workplace protections for pregnant and nursing employee, states that maternity leave laws must allow at least 14 weeks of maternity leave, and require two weeks of enforced leave. Being on maternity leave, new mothers must receive their salary or an “adequate allowance” along with any other benefits under contract.  According to Rebecca Ray, Researcher at Parental Leave

Policies:

Parental leave allowances must be at least three months for each parent (preferably non-transferable between parents), to be taken no later than their child's eighth birthday. Workplace laws must include protection for pregnant and nursing mothers from hazardous working conditions, night work, and dismissal due to pregnancy or maternity leave. Finally, workers must be assured of returning to the same or an equivalent position after taking maternity and parental leave. The only nation exempt from these guidelines is the United Kingdom, which did not sign the 1996 agreement on parental leave and thus must only meet the maternity leave provisions. (Ray, 2008)

The workforce in America has been changed. More and more women and mothers are involved in the workforce, and most of them entering the workforce to stay.  In today’s economy about 78 percent of families have both parents that work for pay. The men and women are working longer hours but receive fewer benefits. On average an American couple now works about 90 hours or more per week, and each partner spending more than 40 hours at the job. (Grant, Hatchet, Patel 2005)

After changes in Australian parental leave policies, the United States of America left to be the only country within industrialized nations that does not guarantee any form of paid parental leave to its citizens.  As of January 2011, Australia offering paid parental leave that includes 18 weeks of paid parental leave at the minimum wage for low to middle income earners.  The cost to Australian tax-payers for such generous parental leave is 260 million dollars a year.

In 1993 the Family and Medical leave Act (FMLA) mandated the US companies to provide 12 weeks of unpaid vacation for new parents.  Unfortunately, most low income families and some middle class families cannot afford 12 weeks without pay.  And also not everyone will qualify to receive such befits. According to the United States Department of Labor:

To be eligible for FMLA benefits, an employee must: work for a covered employer; have       worked for the employer for a total of 12 months; have worked at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months; and work at a location in the United States or in any territory or possession of the United States where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles (DOL, 2011)

The deputy director if the women’s rights division, Janet Walsh, stated:

Out of over 170 countries there are 4 countries that have no paid leave for new mothers: Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Liberia, and the United States of America. Shocking.    Despite its enthusiasm about `family values,' the U.S. is decades behind other countries in ensuring the well-being of working families. Americans often take pride in ways their nation differs from others. But one distinction – lack of a nationwide policy of paid maternity leave – is cited in a new report as an embarrassment that could be redressed at low cost and without harm to employers. (Thakar, 2007)

United States parental leave policies are among the worst in the world.  A 2004 Harvard University study of 168 countries found that 163 guarantee paid leave to women in connection with childbirth, and 45 guarantee paid paternity or parental leave. The United States guarantees no paid leave at all to new parents. (Grant, Hatchet, Patel, 2005) “Being an outlier is nothing to be proud of in a case like this.  Leaving paid leave to the whim of employer’s means millions of workers are left out, especially low-income workers who may need it most," said Walsh. (Thakar, 2007)

According to the research study done by Urban Institute federal law guarantees job protected, unpaid family leave for many workers, but only three in five American workers are eligible to take this leave.  Only 12% of USA employers offering paid leave of absence to new mothers and only 7% offer paid leave to new fathers.  “More than half of poor workers, working welfare recipients, and workers who recently left welfare cannot take paid leave from their jobs.” (Phillips, 2004, p.11)  Approximately 58 percent of workers in private establishments meet the employer-size eligibility criterion of the FMLA (Cantor, 2001). According to authors of National Partnership for Women & Families:

             Most Americans have no paid leave for prenatal care, no paid leave when a baby

is born, and no paid leave to bond with and care for a precious new life. The failure to provide paid parental leave adds financial pressure – in some cases, distress – to millions of families at what should be one of the happiest times of their lives. (Grant, Hatchet, Patel 2005)

When there is no alternative and mothers are forced to get back to work after very short recovery time after birth of a child, many mothers say that it is difficult to tune in a working mood after such a short time on maternity leave. Most of the thoughts not about project or work the new mothers are involved in, but about the infant left with day care provider.  Most mothers who came back to work after only 6 weeks to 3 month of maternal leave are sleep deprived, working mothers typically get less than 6 hours of sleep per night—1-2 hours less than recommended by the Centers for Disease Control , some experiencing fatigues, depression 1 in 5 working moms is depressed and some experiencing anxiety.  Leaving the child in the care of other people is not easy.  Maya Rosin is stating:

After birth, maternity leave may affect the amount of time a child spends with his mother rather than in non-maternal care. Maternity leave will also affect the quality of time the child spends with the mother, depending on changes to her stress level and her satisfaction with the trajectory of her career. (Rosin, 2011)

 Coming back to work after such a short time spent home with infant has lots of difficulties.  There are different reasons why mothers come back so soon, most are financial and legislative.    Some mothers come back to get medical benefits, so essential when having a newborn, and it’s usually tight with full time employment.  According to research study done by Jodi Grant, Taylor Hatcher and Nirali Patel with National Partnership for Women & Families:

Women who take maternity leave often use a combination of vacation days, sick days, personal days, and/or short-term disability time to ensure that some or all of their maternity leave is paid. However, this strategy often places women in a precarious situation when they return to work and have few vacation or sick days available to use during the ongoing postpartum period. Furthermore, this option of coordinating maternity leave is not accessible to all working women (Grant, Hatchet, Patel 2005).

The authors of National Bureau of Economic Research, Pinka Chatterji and Sara Markowitz, conclude that policies that encourage longer maternity leaves may reduce depressive symptoms among employed mothers. The authors find that returning to work later is associated with a reduction in the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. “This means that mothers who return to work later are reporting fewer symptoms of depression, such as "my sleep was restless" or "I could not get going," or are experiencing such symptoms with less frequency or both.” (Chatterji, Markowitz 2005, p 8)  Returning to work may affect maternal health.  Some employees after short maternal leave becomes slower thinker, less enthusiastic when it comes to work on new project and less eager to do any kind of work compare to other employees.  Other options, which might satisfy new mothers and provide life-work balance, may be options for flexible hours and/or part-time opportunity, with the same benefits package as prior to maternity leave.  Research demonstrates that access to paid parental leave is good for business because it is directly tied to employee retention and increased productivity.  In addition, when employees have access to paid leave, morale improves and employees show more loyalty toward the company.   The study done by Researchers from National Partnership for Women & Families, Jodi Grant, Taylor Hatcher and Nirali Patel concludes that:

Millions of Americans do not have enough personal savings to fund their own leave, and most private businesses do not provide any paid parental leave. Thus parents are left to shoulder the economic burden alone. There are alternatives to forcing families to cobble together solutions and risk poverty when they do. California’s paid family leave program demonstrates that it is possible to provide benefits to new parents at a minimal cost. The state’s paid family leave program costs employees less than $2.25 per employee per month. Experts estimate that a paid family and medical leave proposal being considered in Illinois in 2005 would cost less than 60 cents a week per worker.”  (Grant, Hatchet, Patel 2005)

There are only a few states in United States of America that provide their own employees with paid family and/or medical leave that covers pregnancy disability and recovery from childbirth. These five states are California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio. There are no state that will gives all new parents both guaranteed job protection and benefits. There are states that provide additional job protection, broader than that provided by the federal FMLA, for new parents who work for businesses with fewer than 50 employees to new parents caring for infants. Those five states are Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Vermont plus the District of Columbia.  There are thirteen states and the District of Columbia provides expanded job protection to female employees who become pregnant.  Regrettably, there are nineteen states failing to provide a single benefit or program to help support families before and after the birth of a child. Most states fall somewhere in the middle – doing something, but not enough, for working parents. (Grant, Hatchet, Patel 2005)

In Eastern Europe, the parental leave is generally longer than in the western countries, in some countries 100% of salary being covered while in others the amount is lower among the former communist countries, Slovenia is one with a relatively well-developed family policy aimed at reconciling the professional and family life. For example, the Parenthood Protection and Family Benefits Act of 2006 provides 105 days for maternity leave with full salary; 260 days of parental leave or 530 if half-time leave with full salary provided; and 90 days of paternity leave with 15 days full salary.  (Stropnik and Sircelj 2008)

Swedish parental leave insurance system - is an example for the supporters of parental leave and gender equality. It comprehensively covers the very generous and flexible. In addition, during the difficult economic situation in the mid-90s it was only slightly reduced budget, and has recently been extended again. Benefits in the Swedish insurance system shall be provided within 18 months of parental leave, including 14 weeks of maternity leave, amended 6 weeks before delivery and two weeks after the birth of parental leave. Such parental leave is covered for state employees by 100%. The next three months are paid at a fixed rate, and the last three months - are not paid, but still have the right return to work. Leave may be granted to both parents, and cash benefits are provided through a social insurance system can be offset partially or full-time employment. All mothers enjoy vacation. More than 75% of fathers use some vacation. On average, fathers were on leave for 44 days. In addition, working grandparents are also entitled to parental leave for a sick grandchild, if it is more appropriate. Finally, all children of working parents (over 1 year) are guaranteed a place in kindergarten, and one parent has the right to paid time to accompany the child to his first day of school. (Ray, 2008)

In Finland, there is an unusual set of leaves, combined with a system of child protection. It includes 18 weeks of leave due to pregnancy and childbirth, beginning 30-50 days before the expected date of confinement, followed by a 26 week parental leave and additional paternity leave. Leave may be extended in the event of multiple or difficult childbirth. Paid leave benefits, which replace 70% of previous wages. In Finland, granted leave to care for a child up to 3 years of age, paid at minimum wage rates and used by any of the parents. This leave may be substituted in place of unpaid public preschool or services paid home care workers. Parents can participate in the paid program on the protection of children after their child reached three years, if they did not use childcare allowance for children under 3 years. Parents are guaranteed the right to part-time job, and they are entitled to paid leave in case of a child's illness. (Ray, 2008)

Germany also provides parental leave. Maternity leave is 14 weeks, 6 weeks before and 8 weeks after birth, with the provision of cash benefits that are provided by the employer in the amount of total wages. In addition, the available parental leave period for the child reaches 3 years of age, regardless of whether parents are working or not, provided that one parent stays home or works part-time. The grant is given at a fixed rate during the first two years and more than U.S. $ 350 per month. System - address, but the maximum income level is quite high, so that approximately 80 percent of parents may be eligible for benefits. Despite the existence of the "parent" benefits, only 1 percent of fathers take advantage of these opportunities, while all mothers are the consumers of this system. But, given the modest size of the allowance, they are mostly only married women whose husbands are working, for single mothers as it is inadequate. Politics in this case focused on the traditional family. Existing health benefit is paid at 5-day family vacation at a child's illness until his 8 years. (Ray, 2008)

In Austria, provided 16 weeks of compulsory leave for working mothers, 8 weeks before and 8 weeks after birth, the payment of benefits, which fully compensates for the wage. In addition, there is a two-year leave with the workplace, paid within 18 months after the social security system. The last 6 months of paid leave, if leave is taken the father. There is an ongoing debate about the benefits of child care parents having a choice between cash benefit to pay for care or the opportunity to care for a child. (Ray, 2008)

Spain is an example of how a poor country yet provides 16 weeks paid maternity leave, 18 weeks in the case of multiple births, starting from 6 weeks before delivery, if needed, at a rate of 100% of salary. Optional, but unpaid parental leave is available to as long as the child reaches 3 years of age. Parents of children under 6 years of age , or disabled children are eligible for part-time. (Ray, 2008)

Italy provides a 5-month maternity leave, which can take up to 2 months before delivery and 3 - after. Leave is paid at a rate of 80% of previous wage and also given an additional six-month parental leave, during which paid 30% of previous wage. This additional leave is extended in the case of a disabled child until the child reaches 3 years of age. (Ray, 2008)

Thus, it is evident that the duration of leave is of great importance as a component of European family policy.  There is the old assumption that a civilized society can be judged by how it cared for the elderly, mothers and children.  It's no secret that in some countries, non-working mother with a baby can count on good government support, while in others, no such support is provided.  The United States of America is one of the most powerful, wealthy nations that are concern about family values and government should insure parental leave for all mothers and fathers on all income levels. The American government should provide some support in the critical times when it is necessary for family’s wellbeing.   It is necessary for the families, employers and country as a whole.  It is time for United Stated to catch up with the rest of the developed world and think about the future of its citizens.  For all the parents and new babies it is important to have time together. For parents it is essential to provide a care to the child as only parent can, not any other care giver. Becoming a parent is huge responsibility and to get financial support during such a dramatic changes in the family will take off so much stress and will provide confidence and faithfulness to the new parents.   If United States of America is claiming that the country is concern about wellbeing of its citizens, wellbeing meaning healthy, happy, have life and job satisfaction, then longer, paid maternity leave should be offered. 

 

 

 

Department of Labor. (2011). Retirement plans, benefits and savings. Retrieved from: http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/retirement/typesofplans.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Terms of parental leave and its basic features, European Union and United Stated

Countries	Condition in the form of work experience	Duration	Precautions to the ordinary period of leave	work part-time	Break vacation on the part	Vacation pay (for 2003)
Austria *	None	104 weeks	Before the fourth anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	No	14,5-20,5 Euros per day
Belgium *	12 months continuous service	260 weeks	For all of	There is	There is	One-time payment of wage-face
Germany *	Four weeks, a businessman	Before the third anniversary of the birth of a child	Before the third anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	There is	In the 12 months leave to 460 euros for 24 months -307 euros
Greece *	12 months continuous service	13 weeks	2.3 years from the date of birth	There is	There is	No
Denmark *	1) In some cases, there	10 weeks	For maternity leave	No	No	60% of unemployment benefits
	2) The other 120 hours of continuous service for 3 months	26 weeks	Before the ninth anniversary of the birth of a child	No	There is	60% of unemployment benefits
Spain *	None	Before the first anniversary of the birth of a child	Before the first anniversary of the birth of a child	No	No	No
Italy *	None	26 weeks	Between four and ten months after giving birth	No	No	No
Netherlands *	12 months continuous service	Three months	Until the sixth anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	There is	No
Norway	None	42-52 weeks of parental choice	Before the first anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	No	80% of salary for 52 weeks or 100% after 42 weeks
Portugal	Six months	26 weeks	After maternity leave	No	No	No
Finland *	None	1) 26 weeks	1) The maternity leave	No	There is
		2) From the end of the first holiday to the third anniversary of the birth of a child	2) After the end of maternity leave before the third anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	There is	No
France *	12 months continuous service	Before the third anniversary of the birth of a child	Before the third anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	No	The lump sum in respect of the second child: 495 euros
Sweden *	6 months	18 months	18 months	There is	There is	No
Reference USA	12 months of experience and 1,250 hours of work for one employer for 12 months immediately preceding the holiday	12 weeks	Before the first anniversary of the birth of a child	There is	There is	No