Status: 12/14/2022 12:32 p.m
More and more men are taking paid parental leave after the birth of their child. The majority of them, however, only a maximum of two months. And more than half of fathers decide against parental allowance altogether.
Only ten percent of fathers in Germany claim parental allowance for more than two months after the birth of a child. This comes from a Analysis by the Federal Institute for Population Research out.
When parental allowance was introduced in 2007, around 20 percent of fathers opted for the benefit. Since then, their share has doubled and is now 43 percent. Conversely, this means that more than half of all fathers do not use parental allowance at all. The study does not provide any information about the reasons for this.
75 percent of the recipients only take two months
According to the Federal Institute, three out of four fathers of those who claim the benefit receive a maximum of two months of parental allowance – mostly at the same time as their partner. Because most men are on parental leave at the same time as their partners, it is still rare for fathers to be solely responsible for childcare.
In the 13th and 14th month after the birth, the proportion of fathers who stayed at home alone was highest at 20 percent. However, according to the study, many mothers continue to take unpaid parental leave after their entitlement to parental allowance has expired.
brunt of the mothers
The researchers also examined how the length of parental leave affected fathers’ help with housework and childcare.
It makes no difference to the participation of the fathers whether they took no or only a very short parental leave. In both constellations, they spend an average of around two and a half hours on childcare and just under an hour on housework, according to the study. Mothers still do most of the family work.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate for mothers of children under the age of three rose from 43 to 56 percent. “A noticeable success,” said the co-author of the study, Sophia Schmitz, from the Federal Institute for Population Research.
Parental Allowance Plus for up to 24 months
The parental benefit program started in Germany on January 1, 2007. Parents who take a break from their job to look after their children receive two-thirds of their previous salary from the state. You are jointly entitled to basic parental allowance for a total of 14 months after the birth of the child if both of you are involved in looking after the child. You can freely split the months between each other. A parent can claim at least two and at most twelve months for themselves.
Mothers and fathers also have the option of receiving benefits for longer – with the Elterngeld Plus program. The benefit period is up to 24 months after the birth of the child. Then the parental allowance plus is half as high as the basic parental allowance.