The Benefit. Time off from employment and money income. Job protected, paid and unpaid leaves from work for parents at the time preceding or following childbirth, adoption, and for other family reasons.

Purpose: Whether to help parents cope with the potential tensions between paid employment and child-bearing or child-rearing responsibilities, or to optimize the home as a child-rearing environment in the early years of a child's life, and to protect the health of mother and child immediately after childbirth, countries have enacted paid and (unpaid) and job-protected maternity leaves (for which only mothers are eligible), paternity leaves (for which only fathers are eligible), and sometimes, parental leaves, which may be taken by either parent. Some countries also provide family leaves, for example, to care for an ill child, an ill adult family member, and/or to visit a child's school.

Eligibility rules, duration, benefit levels, coverage, administrative agency, and financing vary among the countries.

History: The policy began with maternity leaves, enacted by various employers or countries as a health measure and promoted by an International Labor Office (Geneva) Convention of 1919, which was renewed and updated in 1953 and most recently in June 2000. While still usually completely or at least partially health-based in most countries, its expansion and elaboration have involved unemployment, social security, and free-standing policy components, administration, and financing. Paid maternity leaves are almost universal, but other forms of coverage are diverse and country-specific.

Most closely related to the medical system is the maternity benefit per se (often described in the U.S. as "maternity disability"). In addition to the 128 countries worldwide which provide maternity leave, 95 countries currently offer as part of their health systems provision for medical care in addition to cash sickness and maternity benefits.

The following tables are available to view and print in pdf format.

• Table 1.11: Maternity and Parental Leaves

• Table 1.12: Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leaves in the OECD Countries 1998-2002

• Table 1.13: Statutory Child Care Leaves: Take up rates and the feminization of users

• Table 1.14: Statutory leave arrangements for parents - Summary table of EU

• Figure 1.15: Duration of paid annual leave

For an update on family leave policies, see the Clearinghouse's issue brief "Mother's Day: More than Candy and Flowers, Working Parents Need Paid Time-Off".

References

Bronwen Cohen, "Parental leave in Europe: policy implications," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Laura Den Dulk, "Employers and parental leave: A comparative analysis, in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Fred Deven and T. Neulant, "Parental leave and career breaks in Belgium," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Anna Escobedo, "Doing cross-national work on parental leave," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Eurostat (2004). Development of a Methodology for the Collection of Harmonized Statistics on Childcare. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Jeanne Fagnani, "Parental leave in France," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Linda Haas and P. Hwang, "Parental leave in Sweden," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Jody Heymann et al. (2004). The Work, Family, and Equity Index: Where Does the United States Stand Globally? Cambridge, MA: The Project on Global Working Families, Harvard School of Public Health.

International Labor Organization, Maternity Protection at Work: Revision of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103). Reccommendation No. 53 (No. 95), Report V (1). Geneva: International Labor Organization.

Alfred J. Kahn and Sheila B. Kamerman, Social Policy and the Under-3s: Six Country Case Studies (New York: Cross National Studies Research Program, Columbia University School of Social Work, 1994).

Sheila B. Kamerman, "Parental Leave Policies: An Essential Ingredient in Early Childhood Education and Care Policies", Social Policy Report, Vol. XIV, No. 2 (2000). http://www.srcd.org/sprv14n2.pdf

Sheila B. Kamerman, "From Maternity to Parental Leave Policies: Women's Health, Employment, and Child and Family Well-Being," Journal of Women's Medical Association, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Spring, 2000), pp. 96-99.

Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn, Starting Right (Oxford University Press, 1995), "Ch. 4, Time for Parenting".

Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn, eds., Child Care, Parental Leave, and the Under-3s: Policy Innovation in Europe (New York: Auburn House, 1991.

Arnlaug Leira, "Fathers and parental leave in Germany," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Peter Moss and Fred Deven, "Parental leave in context," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Rudolf Pettinger, "Parental leave in Germany," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Marit Ronsen, "Assessing the impact of parental leave effects on fertility and female employment,: in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Harold Rost, " Fathers and parental leave in Germany," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Tine Rostgaard, M. N. Christoffersen, & H. Weise, "Parental leave in Denmark, in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Minna Salmi and J. Lammi-Taskula, "Parental leave in Finland," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).

Monnika Thenner, "Parental leave in Austria," in Parental Leave: Progress or Pitfall?, edited by Peter Moss and Fred Deven (Netherlands: Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, 1999).