Survey shows that it is still not worth becoming a parent in Hungary

With recent studies from Biomed Central and the Institute for Social Policy revealing that appropriate parental leave is pivotal for the well-being of mothers, fathers and children, countries across the globe are having their parental leave laws called into question. The duration and the percentage of wages remunerated during maternity and paternity leave are evidently vital for a family’s opportunity to overcome what can be an incredibly challenging period.

Curious to uncover more on the parental leave quality across Europe, Reboot Digital PR sought to determine the best European country for new parents. After analysing the length, wage percentages and equal distribution of both maternity and paternity leave, they can now reveal all!

The Results

 

Rank	Country	Maternity Leave Days Paid at 100%	Paternity Leave Days Paid at 100%	Days of Shared Parental Leave Paid at 100%
1	Sweden	216	216	0
2	Iceland	120	120	48
3	Finland	112	112	28
4	Spain	80	80	80
5	Bulgaria	41	14	329
6	Poland	70	44	98
7	Germany	40	0	281
8	Romania	111	15	621
9	Lithuania	98	23	311
10	Slovenia	105	30	260
11	Austria	80	6	292
12	Norway	75	10	245
13	Denmark	63	7	112
14	Croatia	98	0	200
15	Hungary	84	5	142

 

Reboot Digital PR can reveal Sweden is the best European country to become a new parent, offering a whopping 216 days of fully paid maternity and paternity leave, with 240 days total. This means Sweden also boasts the most days of guaranteed paid paternity leave in Europe, 55% more than Iceland (120 days) in 2nd place.

However, Iceland manages to pinch the silver medal by offering an additional 48 days of shared parental leave alongside 120 days of fully paid leave for both parents. With 32 weeks of maternity leave, resulting in 160 total days, Iceland’s given days are the 6th highest in Europe.

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Finland takes third place with 112 fully paid days for both parents, and an additional 28 days of shared parental leave, while Spain places fourth boasting 80 days of fully paid leave for mothers and fathers and 80 days more in shared parental leave. This makes Spain the last country on the list to assign equal care to both new parents.

Reboot Digital PR can reveal that on average in Europe, fathers receive 76% less paid leave than mothers, with 26 days paternity leave compared to 110 days maternity leave.

The Top Five European countries to become a mother, by days of fully paid leave.

• Latvia – 448 days
• United Kingdom – 234 days
• Sweden – 216 days
• Italy – 150 days
• Luxembourg – 140 days

The Top Five European countries to become a father, by days of fully paid leave.

• Sweden – 216 days
• Iceland – 120 days
• Finland – 112 days
• Spain – 80 days
• Poland – 44 days

You can find the full data HERE.

Reboot Digital PR’s co-founder and managing director Naomi Aharony has provided a comment on the importance of fair parental leave, and an employer’s role in maintaining new parents’ well-being:

“Parental leave is essential in helping to build a child’s social and psychological development. For employers, the benefits are also important as evidence indicates it helps promote staff well-being and productivity which in turn helps with staff retention rates. The EU has adopted promising new directives over the last few years to tackle the work-life balance for parents but there is still a way to go before equality for parents is fully achieved.”

Methodology

 

1. Reboot Digital PR sought to discover which European country was most beneficial for becoming a new parent and raising a family.
2. All European countries with the necessary information available were selected as the sample of this study, meaning 30 countries were analysed.
3. An index was created considering the following factors in each country:

1. The length of maternity leave.
2. The percentage of regular wages paid during maternity leave.
3. The length of paternity leave.
4. The percentage of regular wages paid during paternity leave.

1. Maternity leave length and pay percentages statistics for each country were collected from World Population Review, OECD.org and ec.europa.eu.
2. Data on paternity leave length and pay percentages for each country were sourced from Eurodev.com, OECD.org and Papayaglobal.com
3. Additional information on parenthood reforms and gender gaps were collected from Worldbank.org, OECD.org and the Global Gender Gap Report.
4. Several countries were given additional consideration as they each enforce further parental leave laws depending on context and circumstance. The list of these considerations can be found here.
5. Subsequently, data was pre-processed to obtain the days of paid paternity and maternity leave, since countries remunerate employees at a different rate during this period. The output was used to calculate the actual number of paid days if employees were receiving 100% of the wage.
6. Using the actual number of paid days, a combined score for ‘gender gap balance’ was found by calculating the variation between maternity and paternity leave payments for each country sampled.
7. Countries were then sorted by gender gap balance (from 0% to 100%) in order to find the best European country for new parents. Countries that have a gender gap balance closer to 0% were considered the most ‘equal,’ whilst those closest to 100% had a wider margin of inequality.
8. Please note that the countries with the same gender gap balance were ranked by the most total actual paid days.
9. Data was collected on 15/11/2021 and is subject to change.

Read alsoHungarian secretary in Poland: the child protection law not aimed against LGBTQ people!

Source: rebootonline.com