Maternity leave around the world

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Parents in the Czech Republic can take one of the longest maternity leaves in the world. On the one hand, it sounds great. On the other hand, however, the country is losing money this way. It enforces traditional gender roles and, in combination with the lack of childcare facilities for children under three, it's virtually impossible for parents to return to work early.

Maternity benefits, which are part of the Czech national system of health insurance, constitute up to 196 days (28 weeks) of paid maternity leave. If two or more children are born at once, it's up to 37 weeks. Maternity benefits can be taken by both the mother or the father, but not concurrently. Moreover, after this period, the parent who is the full-time caregiver is entitled to a parental allowance, totalling CZK 220,000, until the child reaches four years of age.

An overview of countries with regard to the length of maternity leave was prepared by Citationa, a British employment law compliance firm. You can see it here.

USA: Only unpaid maternity leave

A mother (or father) can take the longest maternity leave in Croatia (406 days of paid maternity leave), followed by Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the UK, where it is possible to receive maternity benefits up to 365 days. The worst situation is in Tunisia (30 days of paid maternity leave), Papua New Guinea (42 days) and the United Arab Emirates (45 days).

The top ten countries with the shortest maternity leave include Lebanon, Qatar, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Nepal, Swaziland, Lesotho and, surprisingly to many people, the United States. Parents in the US can, as in Swaziland and Lesotho, take only 84 days of maternity leave. However, it is unpaid maternity leave which only employees working for companies with more than 50 employees are entitled to. This is a real exception among developed countries.

"Paternity" and shared maternity leave

Regarding benefits for fathers of newborn babies, Iceland is the most generous country. New dads can spend up to 91 paid days with their newborn babies without this affecting the benefits for mothers.

In the UK, which recently introduced shared maternity leave, fathers are entitled to 14 days of paid "maternity leave". Shared maternity leave was also implemented in Sweden where parents can jointly take up to 480 days of maternity leave until their child is eight years of age.

How long do you think is the optimal length of maternity leave, and under what conditions?

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