I remember my Baby Bunching friend Sandie (from Canada) saying one of the great things about living in Canada was the maternity leave. It enabled women to have their babies, take a year off, and during the maternity leave get pregnant again. While I'm not sure how sustainable that is to the American work ethic, where your job expects you to check in shortly after you popped out a baby, it is a way of thinking about how other countries view family. Seems to me in places like Canada, the "mommy wars" wouldn't exist in the same way it does here since mommies get the chance to have their cake and eat it too--work and be at home with their kids during the early days (ahem years).
After living in Sweden, I realized women there have the same philosophy as the Canadians. They have 16 months of maternity leave, which they can share with their husband, and many choose to 'bunch' another baby in during that leave so they're only off the career track for a little while. Wow, these ladies have mastered the art of Baby Bunching! So I started thinking, if this is a trend and women are getting on the Baby Bunching bandwagon in Canada and Sweden, I wondered where else?
So....here are an unofficial list of a few other countries in the world that offer the perfect leave structure for Baby Bunching. I'm not suggesting you start packing your bags (although I may after seeing a few countries on the list), just offering a perspective of other places that may be even more familiar with Baby Bunching. (Interesting, how several of these countries make super bad-ass double strollers. Coincidence? Perhaps not!)
[Note: Unpaid leave is "job-protected leave" meaning for most countries that you are guaranteed a job when you return at equal level and/or pay to the one you left. So they don't really have to hold your job, but they have to make room to give you one when you return.]
Canada--52 weeks (15 weeks maternity + 35 weeks for each parent). Only 35 weeks is paid, but the other 35 weeks is job-protected leave.
Denmark--offers 52 weeks
Finland--105 days at 80% pay, followed by share of 158 days with father. Unpaid job-protected leave until a child turns three.
France--16 weeks at 100% pay. Moms may share 104 weeks (2 years) of unpaid leave with father.
Germany--offers 14 weeks at 100% pay, including six weeks BEFORE the birth, then 12-14 months at 67% pay. Wow, baby bunching must be super popular in Germany!
Ireland--16 1/2 weeks of leave, plus an additional four months of unpaid leave for both mom or dad.
Israel--14 weeks, but up to one year unpaid protected leave.
Italy--22 weeks (5 months) at 80% pay, plus 2 months before the baby is born. Then dads may take an additional 13 weeks (3 months) at 80% pay. Both parents may take a maximum of 10 additional months unpaid leave.
New Zealand--14 weeks of leave, plus 38 weeks of unpaid leave.
Norway--54 weeks (12.5 months) at 80% pay or 44 weeks (10 months) at 100%. Mother must take at least 3 weeks immediately before birth and 6 weeks immediately after birth, father must take at least 6 weeks - the rest can be shared between mother and father.
Spain--16 weeks of leave, up to 3 years of unpaid protected leave.
UK--39 weeks (6 weeks at 90% of full pay and the next 33 weeks at a flat rate), plus up to a year of unpaid job protected leave.
(If I have missed a location or the information is not up to date, let me know.)
I think I want to move to Canada to have baby#3...Very interesting info!!
Posted by: AmyS | Sep 30, 2008 at 03:11 PM
Holy Crap! I'm totally moving to Canada, eh?
Posted by: Casey | Sep 30, 2008 at 05:03 PM
I live in Canada, and it's 52 weeks total off. You have to wait two weeks before benefits are paid out. If you are sharing the leave with your spouse, they don't wait a waiting period to collect. The mother can be paid 50 weeks (15 weeks maternity, 35 weeks parental) or the parental can be split with the other parent, but it cannot exceed 35 weeks total. If you have a nice doctor willing to write you a note that you cannot work due to pregnancy complications, you can take an additional 15 weeks off for sickness leave (also paid!!!) This is a total 65 weeks job protected with pay!
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