As one of you mentioned in a response to the last post on gender equality,\u00a0Norway\u00a0implements\u00a0quite a nice parental leave policy.\u00a0 The best part about the policy is how flexible it is.\u00a0 Parents are allowed to take either 44\u00a0weeks (10 months) of full-paid leave or 54 weeks (12.5 months)\u00a0of 80% paid leave.\u00a0 Now, those months can be split up in several ways.\u00a0 The mother must take 3 weeks off immediately before birth (key word MUST) and 6 weeks immediately following birth.\u00a0 The father must take at least 6 weeks (key word MUST).\u00a0 If the father does not take the leave, it is simply lost as paid leave.\u00a0 The remainder of the time that they choose to take off from work can be split up however they choose.\u00a0 Is that cool or what?<\/p>\n
Each parent can also take one year of unpaid leave after the paid period ends.\u00a0 Excellent job security.\u00a0 Each parent must have worked for 6 of the previous 10 months before birth to qualify for paid leave.\u00a0\u00a0If they do not meet this requirement, they still get a lump sum from the government.\u00a0 So, in essence, the government pays Norwegians to have babies.\u00a0 Keep in mind, new parents do not have hospital bills either.\u00a0 Of course, Norwegians pay high taxes (for these very reasons…), so it makes sense that they are reimbursed for such expenses as taking care of children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An increasing number of Norwegian fathers are taking the maximum leave.\u00a0 If you have the option, why not take it, right?\u00a0 Everyone knows that the parent with whom a young child spends the most time will be the parent they are most attached to.\u00a0 Fathers want to be a part of their young child’s life from the start.\u00a0 In an article posted on the norway.org website (the Norwegian embassy in the U.S.), one father says \u201cPaternity leave gives me the opportunity to be as involved in raising her\u00a0as her mother. Now Ingrid can get to know her father just as well as her mother, and that is great both for her and for us.\u201d\u00a0 It seems so obvious that this is the way it should be, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n
If only all parents had this option.\u00a0 In the United States, neither mothers nor fathers are guaranteed paid leave.\u00a0 Each can take 12 weeks if they meet the requirements, but they are unpaid.\u00a0 Therefore, most fathers take a very minimal amount of time off, and working mothers typically do not take more than 2 months.\u00a0 They simply throw the very young child in daycare and are not as involved as most would ideally like to be.\u00a0 It is also common for women to want to go back to work earlier than planned because they are so used to working a lot.\u00a0 As most of you know, the United States is full of workaholics.\u00a0 Many people simply do not know what to do with themselves when they are off work for an extended period of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We could definitely\u00a0take a lesson from Norway’s generous parental leave policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As one of you mentioned in a response to the last post on gender equality,\u00a0Norway\u00a0implements\u00a0quite a nice parental leave policy.\u00a0 The best part about the policy is how flexible it is.\u00a0 Parents are allowed to take either 44\u00a0weeks (10 months) of full-paid leave or 54 weeks (12.5 months)\u00a0of 80% paid leave.\u00a0 Now, those months can…<\/p>\n