Maternity Leave

Maternity leave is a job-protected leave from employment provided to mothers around the time of childbirth, [Page 1097]sometimes with full or partial income replacement. The purpose of maternity leave is to give mothers time to prepare for or recover physically from childbirth and to care for newborn children without losing their employment. Most developed countries have national legislation that specifies minimum levels of maternity leave benefits to workers meeting certain qualifications. Employers may also have firm-level maternity leave policies surpassing the legally required minimum.

Family leave policy in Europe originated in policies introduced more than a century ago in order to protect the health of working mothers and their newborn children. The first maternity leave law was enacted by Germany in 1883. In 1919 the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention of Maternity Protection recommended paid maternity leave of 12 weeks with a compulsory six-week postpartum period. The development and expansion of maternity leave policies in several countries was based on the ILO recommendations. In 1952 a second ILO Maternity Protection Convention recommended leave of 14 weeks with full wage replacement, with six weeks prior to and eight weeks after the birth of the baby. However, family leave policies were not widely adopted in Europe until the 1960s. Beginning with Sweden in 1974, many countries introduced dual parental leave policies, either by extending benefits to fathers in addition to mothers (paternity leave) or by replacing maternity leave with gender-neutral policies (parental leave).

Across countries, maternity leave policies differ along three dimensions: benefit duration, replacement rates, and eligibility criteria. Benefit duration varies widely across countries. The developed nations that make up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provide an average of 10 months of maternity leave. Continental European countries have generous leave policies relative to the United States, providing leaves ranging from 11 months in Italy to 3.3 months in Germany. Nordic countries guarantee leaves ranging from 18 months in Denmark and Sweden to three years in Norway and Finland. Canadian law mandates approximately six months of childbirth-related leave; in the United States, the legal requirement is less than three months (12 weeks) of maternity leave.

Nations also vary in the extent of income replacement required during maternity leave. Austria, Germany, and France require 100 percent income replacement during the initial period of maternity leave. Other European countries require between 60 and 90 percent income replacement. Canada requires the replacement of 55 percent of prior earnings. The United States stands out among developed nations in requiring no income replacement.

Among OECD countries, the average maternity leave provided is 10 months, but in the United States, it is only 12 weeks.

Finally, eligibility criteria for maternity leave vary across countries. Most developed nations have universal leave policies, covering all new mothers (maternity leave), all new fathers (paternity leave), or all new parents (parental leave). In the United States, only those who work in firms with at least 50 employees and only those who have worked 1,250 hours in the prior year are legally guaranteed maternity leave. As a result, only about half of private-sector employees in the United States are legally entitled to maternity leave.

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