Paid parental leave policies for single-parent households: an examination of legislative approaches in 34 OECD countries

ABSTRACT

Many studies have examined the availability of paid parental leave for the general population, but few have looked specifically at whether leave policies meet the needs of single parents. Across OECD countries, 17% of children on average live in single-parent households. Depending on policy framing, parental leave benefits may not meet the needs of parents and children in single-parent families. This study provides the first comprehensive examination of paid parental leave policies in 34 OECD member countries as they pertain to single-mother and single-father households. Using original legislation and administrative sources, we created a new database to examine the total duration of paid leave available to parents in single- and two-parent households after the birth or adoption of a child. Our findings indicate that single mothers receive shorter durations of paid leave compared to two-parent families in 22 countries after the birth of a child; for fathers, this number rises to 29. Single adoptive mothers and fathers receive shorter durations of leave than two-parent households in 17 countries each. We discuss the potential origins of these discrepancies and policy approaches to providing single parents with adequate paid leave while continuing to incentivize dual uptake in two-parent households.

ABSTRACTO

Muchos estudios han examinado la disponibilidad del permiso parental remunerado para la población en general, pero pocos han analizado específicamente si las políticas de permisos satisfacen las necesidades de las familias monoparentales. En los países de la OCDE, el 17% de los niños vive en hogares monoparentales. Dependiendo de cómo se formulan las políticas, es posible que los beneficios de licencia parental no satisfagan las necesidades de padres e hijos en hogares monoparentales. Este estudio brinda el primer análisis exhaustivo de las políticas de licencia parental remunerada en 34 países miembros de la OCDE en lo que se respecta a hogares monoparentales. Utilizando legislación original y fuentes administrativas, creamos una nueva base de datos para comparar la duración total de la licencia remunerada disponible para hogares monoparentales con la que reciben los hogares biparentales, en ambos casos después del nacimiento o la adopción de un niño. Nuestros hallazgos indican que las madres solteras reciben una duración más corta de vacaciones pagadas en comparación con las familias biparentales en 22 países después del nacimiento de un niño; para los padres, esta cifra se eleva a 29. En el caso de adopción, las madres solteras y los padres solteros reciben una duración de licencia más corta que los hogares biparentales en 17 países. Discutimos los posibles orígenes de estas discrepancias, y las maneras en que las políticas pueden proporcionar a las familias monoparentales una licencia remunerada adecuada, a la vez que continúan incentivando el uso dual de licencia parental en los hogares biparentales.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental leave
• paid leave
• single parents
• sole parents
• OECD

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Licencia parental
• permisos remunerados
• padres solteros
• madres solteras
• OCDE

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Judy Jou, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Health Science at California State University, Long Beach. Previously, she worked as a Policy Analyst at the WORLD Policy Analysis Center in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her research addresses issues related to health and social policy, gendered aspects of health and employment, and social determinants of health.

Elizabeth Wong, M.P.H., is a Policy Analyst at the WORLD Policy Analysis Center in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her qualitative and quantitative research experience includes work on women’s reproductive health, among other key areas relevant to domestic and global policy.

Daniel Franken, Ph.D., is a Policy Analyst at the WORLD Policy Analysis Center in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. His interests include the influence of income inequality on health differentials, aging and longevity, and maternal and child health.

Amy Raub, M.S., is a Principal Research Analyst at the WORLD Policy Analysis Center in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Her work focuses on the development of quantitative measures of laws and policies in all 193 UN countries and how these measures can be used to advance monitoring and accountability.

Jody Heymann, M.D., Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Geffen School of Medicine, and the Founding Director of the WORLD Policy Analysis Center. Her work addresses how social policy can advance equality across populations, and she has written extensively on the inequalities faced by working families globally.