Government publishes report on parental leave

In June 2004, the German Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth published a research report on parental leave. The report analyses the effects of a new law on the issue which came into force in 2001. While the share of men taking advantage of parental leave has increased, most childcare duties are still carried out by women, the report finds. Furthermore, women who combine childcare with part-time work are increasingly working longer hours.

At a press conference on 16 June 2004, the Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend) presented the findings of a new research report. The report investigates the effects of a 2001 reform of the Federal Childcare and Parental Leave Act (Bundesreziehungsgeldgesetz, BErzGG), which introduced new provisions on parental leave and childcare payments (DE0007271F). This reform was considered to be a core item in the family policy of the 'red-green' coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and the Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), and was aimed at overcoming the traditional division of tasks between men and women regarding childcare.

The law came into force on 1 January 2001 and was intended to support parents in combining work and childcare duties more flexibly. According to the revised BErzGG, parents have the right to take parental leave for the purpose of caring for their child for a period of up to three years after the child’s birth (including the option to postpone the third and final year of leave for use in the period up until the child’s eighth birthday). The leave may be shared between the parents, allowing them to take parental leave at the same time. During the period of parental leave, the employment relationship is suspended, which means that the employee does not have to perform work and that the employer does not have to pay remuneration. Parents, however, may qualify for childcare payments if their household’s income is below a certain threshold. Parents and employers are entitled to agree on part-time work of up to a maximum of 30 hours a week, allowing the former to take part-time parental leave. Employers are only allowed to reject an employee's request for such part-time work if this creates considerable problems for their company. They also have to grant employees the right to return to full-time employment after the period of parental leave ends.

The new Ministry study, based on a representative written survey of 725 parents who qualify for childcare payments, found a significant increase in the share of fathers who are willing to take time off for childcare. While earlier estimates from before the 2001 reform of the law stated that only 1.5% of all fathers entitled to parental leave took advantage of this opportunity, according to the new study this share has increased to 4.9%. As shown in the table below, 4.7% of all respondents answered that both father and mother were taking advantage of parental leave while working part-time. An additional 0.2% of the fathers in the survey were taking parental leave while being released from work. The study also found that men are more likely to take parental leave when the individual income of both parents is equal or when the mother’s income is higher. The chances of women taking full responsibility for childcare and not working at all increase with the number of children. While the Ministry sees some improvement, most of the childcare is still perform by women.

Source: Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

According to the study, the opportunity to combine parental leave with part-time work has gained some popularity through the reform, which increased the maximum number of hours per week that employees on parental leave are allowed to work. At a point 18 months after the birth of their child, 45% of those women on parental leave who had decided to work part time were working between 20 and 30 hours per week. In general, women are more likely to work part time and to decide against being completely released from their work duties if they are highly qualified and have a comparatively high level of education.