As of February 2018, the new paternity leave entitlement for fathers has come into effect in the Czech Republic. The new seven-day entitlement, which allows fathers to claim up to 70% of their salary, is intended to encourage father’s early involvement in caring for young children.

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Support for new fathers in Czech Republic

The new entitlement is available for fathers with sickness insurance (the majority for whom is paid by their employer). Fathers are entitled to up to 70% of their salary for seven calendar days of leave within six weeks of the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. The leave can be taken at any time in the six weeks following the child’s birth.

Mothers in the Czech Republic are currently entitled to 20 weeks of postnatal maternity support, which can also be split with the father as shared parental leave after the sixth week.

As outlined in the EPIC Country Profile for the Czech Republic, while the overall employment rate for fathers of children under 6 years of age is higher than the EU average (94.7% compared with the EU average of 88.2% in 2016), the employment rate for mothers of children under 6 years of age is lower than the EU average (45.2% compared with 61.4% in the EU in 2016).

Support for new fathers across Europe

All EU Member States offer some form of paternity or parental leave following the birth of a child, although countries vary as to whether they offer a right to leave of varying length to each individual parent, or a shared allocation which can be split between families as they choose.

As outlined in a 2016 EPIC policy brief, uptake of paternity leave and parental leave by fathers can have beneficial outcomes for the development of the child, the work-life balance of families, and the reduction of gender inequality in the labour market.

However, the report identified a number of obstacles for the uptake of paternity and parental leave by fathers, including

• the need to maintain the family income in countries where compensation only replaces a proportion of the previous earnings,
• eligibility criteria such as employment length, which may exclude self-employed fathers or those with short work histories,
• lack of flexibility in the timing of uptake,
• the level of wider employer support for fathers wishing to take leave and
• cultural norms about gender roles in child rearing.

Nonetheless, the report identified dedicated leave entitlements for fathers (‘daddy quotas’), information campaigns and bonuses for families in which both parents take leave as potential incentives to support uptake amongst fathers.

EPIC platform reviews outcomes of parental leave changes

The European Platform for Investing in Children collects evidence-based practices relating to child and family policy across Europe, including initiatives focusing on parental leave. These include reviews of evaluations of parental leave policy changes in several Member States:

• Outcomes of the 2006-2007 parental leave policy change in Germany: This practice reviews the outcomes of a 2007 policy change in Germany which changed the parental leave entitlement from a means-tested to an earnings-based payment.
• Promoting Parental Leave in Sweden: This practice reviews the outcomes of a 2002 policy change in Sweden which provided a sixteen-month paid leave policy, including two months reserved per parent.

Outcomes of parental leave policy changes in Austria: This practice reviews a 2014 study on the outcomes of Austrian parental leave changes in 1990, 1996 and 2000 which in turn extended, reduced and extended again the duration of benefit payments.

This news item was written for the European Platform for Investing in Children (EPIC).