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Research has suggested that maternity leave of of around three to four months helps women’s employment but longer periods lead to what economists call ‘statisti
by joeyo 17y ago
Research has suggested that maternity leave of of around three to four months helps women’s employment but longer periods lead to what economists call ‘statistical discrimination’ against women in general.
One solution would be offer equal length paternity leave for men to minimize that effect. That said though, the bill mandating three years of maternity leave that the post alludes to does sound a bit excessive.
- lucumo 17y ago> One solution would be offer equal length paternity leave for men to minimize that effect. That will probably just extend the effect to potential fathers as well. It's probably a "you just can't win" situation :-/
- eru 17y agoBut every one is a potential father or mother. I guess another solution would be to require employees to put up a bond that covers the companies expenses in case they go on absence. The cost of a risk of absence has to be paid by out of the gross salary anyway, so we might as well make it more explicit. (I do not know whether you could then put up a (possibly subsidisied) insurance company to cover the bonds in case of having children. The problem is, that having children does not work like accidents or fire.)
- lucumo 17y ago> But every one is a potential father or mother. Not really. It's a sliding scale, but at some age the "new child probability" drops dramatically. People who already have children over a certain age are unlikely to have more children too.
- eru 17y agoThat's right. But here you are saver with older women than older men.
- Alex3917 17y agoA better solution would be to have the government pay the parent a stipend instead of the company.
- eru 17y agoWe have this in Germany. However --- how much is fair? And what about the other costs of maternal leave --- especially the job-guarantee?
- Tichy 17y agoI think in Germany how much you get paid depends on your former salary, which does not seem fair to me. There should be equal pay for every mother (if the government paying is the right solution at all). Apart from that of course the question is how much should be paid in absolute terms (people who don't have children are at a disadvantage).
- naz 17y agoIt doesn't have to be fair. If they don't pay according to salary the woman will need to continue collecting money from her employer and discrimination is encouraged thus defeating the point
- eru 17y agoYes, but if it is based on former salary, I may want to negotiate a huge salary with my employer shortly before leaving, on the assumption that I pay back the money plus some more later (e.g. buy a bond of that company etc).
- Tichy 17y agoHow would she collect salary from her employer? Also if she earns enough, she should be able to pay the maternity leave from her savings. Why should a woman with a higher salary need more money during maternity leave than a poorer woman? If the poor woman can do with the free money the tax payer is willing to give, surely the rich woman should be able to do the same.