Introduction – Why EU directives are needed?
In recent years, gender equality has become a top priority for the European Union (EU). The European Commission has recognized that the disproportionate share of care responsibilities that women shoulder affect women’s underrepresentation and advancement in the labour market. It estimates that the economic loss due to the gender employment gap amounts to €370 billion per year.[1] Despite often being more qualified than men, women frequently withdraw from the labour market due to inadequate support for their familial caregiving responsibilities and enduring gender norms that designate caregiving as a woman’s role. The lower participation of women in the labour market is also connected to the persistent gender pay gap and the widening pension gap, which often results in a heightened risk of poverty and social exclusion. Thus, the Commission has taken several initiatives, including the Work-Life Balance Directive (2019/1158) to promote gender equality through new regulation. The directives set minimum policy standards and a regulatory framework to be transposed into national law by EU Member States.
The Work-Life Balance Directive (WLBD), adopted in 2019, seeks to improve gender equality, specifically the unequal sharing of caring responsibilities between women and men, which is one of the root problems behind various gender inequalities in the labour market. The WLBD aims to advance these goals by setting baseline policy entitlements at the EU level for paternity leave, parental leave, carers’ leave, and flexible working arrangements.
Work-Life Balance Directive
The WLBD marks a milestone in European policy-making by creating new regulations to promote gender equality (see Table 1). A key provision of the WLBD is the allocation of two months of non-transferable parental leave to each parent, an extension from the 2010 directive, which earmarked only one month per parent. What sets the 2019 directive apart from previous directives is the combination of this two-month requirement with the stipulation of payment. Although Member States have the power to determine the payment level, the Commission encourages it to be sufficient to encourage both parents to take parental leave. Importantly, these are only the minimum standards and the EU Member States can be more ambitious by offering even more equalizing policies, if they wish to do so. The parental leave, together with other policies, such as paternity leave and flexible working arrangements, have significant potential to incentivize leave-taking by fathers, and in so doing, contribute to equalizing work and caregiving responsibilities by women and men.
The deadline for Member States to transpose WLBD into law was in August 2022. However, for the payment of parental leave, Member States had until August 2024 (Article 20.2) to transpose the last two weeks of the non-transferable parental leave as provided for in Article 5(2) and Article 8(3) into their national law. As of June 2024, Belgium, Ireland, and Spain have not fully implemented WLBD. The European Commission has taken these countries to the European Court of Justice for failing to notify national measures to fully transpose these regulations into national law. In November 2023, The European Commission referred Belgium, Ireland, and Spain to the European Court of Justice for failing to fully transpose the directive into national law.
| Paternity leave | Fathers/ second parents have the right to take at least 10 working days of paternity leave around the time of birth of the child. Paternity leave is compensated at least at the national sick pay level. The WLBD also encourages Member States to ensure that paternity leave is compensated at a rate similar to maternity leave. To receive paternity allowance, Member States can require a history of employment, but no more than six months before the anticipated birth date of the child. |
| Parental leave | Each parent should have a minimum of four months of parental leave.At least two months are non-transferable from one parent to another to encourage take-up of leave among fathers. These two non-transferable months should be adequately compensated at a level to be decided in each EU country. While remuneration is mandatory, it is left for Member States to decide what adequate pay means. Parents have the right to request taking the leave flexibly (part-time and piecemeal) before the child reaches a particular age, up to a maximum of eight years old, as determined by each country or by a collective agreement. The employer should be able to accept or refuse such a request for parental leave in ways other than on a full-time basis. To be eligible and receive parental leave allowance, Member States can require a specific period of employment, but not longer than one year. |
| Carers’ leave | Carers, who are workers providing personal care or support to a relative or person living in the same household, are entitled to carers’ leave of five working days per year.Relatives include a worker’s son, daughter, mother, father, spouse, or partner in a civil partnership, where such partnerships are envisaged by national law. Member States can decide whether they offer payment for carers’ leave. |
| Flexible working arrangements | All working parents of children up to at least eight years and all carers have a right to request flexible working arrangements. These include reduced working hours, flexible working hours, and flexibility in place of work. |
WLBD Implementation to Date
There are very few comparative analyses of how Member States have changed their policies to comply with the WLBD (note that the deadline for transposition of pay passed only in 2023). Our research on seven European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Netherlands and, the UK), reveals that the policy change and compliance with the Directive is uneven (Zumbyte and Szelewa 2024). The non-compliance results from policies failing to meet all required stipulations of the Directive. To examine compliance with the WLBD, we looked at work-family policies before and after WLBD and categorized countries into compliant and non-compliant groups for each of the four policies: a) paternity leave, b) parental leave, c) carers’ leave, and d) flexible work arrangements.[2] Among four policies, countries exhibit higher compliance with carers’ leave and flexible work arrangements compared to paternity or parental leave policies.
All countries comply with the carers’ leave, likely due to pre-existing national provisions and the absence of a mandatory pay requirement for five days. Compliance with flexible work arrangements is lower compared to carers’ leave, with only four out of seven countries adhering to WLBD stipulations. The main reason for non-compliance is that the flexible work policies do not allow work flexibility when workers need to care for relatives. While flexible working policies are available to parents, the exclusion of relatives restricts the rights of carers who may not be parents.
Paternity and parental leave present more contentious policy areas, as they involve more dimensions for compliance. Almost all countries in the study implemented changes in their paternity and parental leave, but certain aspects remained unchanged, resulting in non-compliance among three countries. For example, countries such as Ireland and Slovakia require fathers to be employed for longer than the Directive’s stipulated duration (six months) to avail of paternity leave benefits. Ireland also offers a flat-rate compensation for paternity leave which is below the sick pay level required by the WLBD. By not meeting the requirements in these eligibility criteria, even though the policy duration is satisfactory (10 days), Ireland is non-compliant with the paternity leave policy.
Regarding the non-transferable portion of parental leave (two months), only three countries are fully compliant.[3] For others, non-compliance stems largely from partial or no remuneration of parental leave, and other issues, such as discrepancies in leave duration and the age of the child at which parental leave can be taken. Thus, these findings indicate that while countries may have reformed leave duration and compensation, many still inadequately address “less visible” policy dimensions, making work-family policies less supportive of working parents and carers than what the WLBD requires. This, in turn, can limit policy effectiveness and promoting gender equality.
Policy Recommendations
To achieve the Directives’ goals of promoting gender equality by incentivizing equal sharing of care responsibilities, we propose the following recommendations:
1. Compensation for paternity and parental leave should be sufficiently high to incentivize leave-taking among fathers.
Compensation, or wage replacement level, is one of the most critical dimensions of leave policy for promoting gender equality in the labour market and in the family. Because fathers’ earnings are often higher than the mother’s, it often leads to lower take-up among fathers compared to mothers if parental leave does not replace a substantial share of fathers’ earnings. Even if a country offers extended parental leave, a low wage replacement level does little to counteract the effects of wage differences by gender, which push women to become the primary leave-takers and discourage fathers from participating in caregiving (Ray, Gornick, and Schmitt 2010). Providing a high level of compensation thus promotes gender equality in the labour market and family – it is found that women’s participation in paid work increases, while men increase their participation in childcare and housework (Schober 2014; Patnaik 2019). High compensation also sends a strong message that parent care is socially valued (Haas and Rostgaard 2011).
Numerous research studies show that higher compensation levels are related to greater leave take-up among fathers around the world (Moss 2008; ILO 2014; Patnaik 2019; Geisler and Kreyenfeld 2019; Duvander et al. 2024). Similarly, when benefits are reduced, fathers’ participation in leave drops. For example, in Iceland following the 2008 financial crisis, the reduction in financial compensation for parental leave resulted in fathers taking parental leave less frequently and for shorter durations (Arnalds et al. 2021). When the ‘daddy months’ were reduced in Norway or abolished in Denmark, fathers’ use of parental leave also decreased immediately (Borchorst 2006; Schou 2019 in Duvander et al. 2024).
While WLBD does not stipulate the level of pay required, it specifies that the level of compensation should be set at a relatively high level, to encourage take-up of leave. During earlier drafting of the Directive, it was suggested that the leave should be set at least at a national sick pay level (but not included in the current version), which is what is currently required for paternity leave. In comparative policy research, leave is considered ‘well-paid’ if it replaces at least 66% of wages (Blum et al. 2023). Yet, to achieve true financial viability for fathers and families, leave compensation should be close to 100% of their regular earnings (Javornik and Kurowska 2017). Several countries provide at least two months of father-only leave at 100% of wage replacement, including Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain (Blum et al. 2023).[4] The average replacement level for the EU stands at 82% of salary (Kakoulidou et al. 2022).
The responsibility to pay well-paid leave should also rest largely with the state. In countries like Ireland, where statutory leave is a low flat-rate payment and the government leaves it up to employers to decide whether to top up leave (Newman and Ryan 2020), this employer discretion results in inequalities in access to well-paid leave. While better compensation for parental leave alone may be insufficient to encourage most fathers to take leave, it is one of the most critical dimensions of the policy to encourage take-up.
2. Member States should adopt the most inclusive eligibility criteria, meeting at least the minimum WLBD standards, to ensure equitable access to parental leave.
For all four policies of the Work-Life Balance Directive (WLBD), countries must comply with multiple dimensions, including compensation, duration, coverage of dependents, requirements for employment contracts, and specified employment duration. Each of these elements has significant implications for the policy, particularly in terms of the extent to which all fathers can access parental leave and other policies (Javornik 2014; Dobrotić and Blum 2019; Duvander et al. 2019). After emphasizing high compensation, we now focus on other eligibility criteria crucial for achieving gender equality for all societal groups. For instance, in the EU-28, 29% of women and 20% of men are ineligible for parental leave due to factors such as unemployment, employment conditions, self-employment, or personal and household characteristics (EIGE 2020). Exclusion of some groups from access to parental leave, carers’ leave, or flexible work arrangements can significantly affect uptake and negatively impact gender equality and social equity (O’Brien et al. 2017; Twamley and Schober 2019).
Labor Market Attachment: To promote gender equality across all socio-economic groups, paternity, and parental benefits should address the increasing prevalence of labour market precarity and should be designed to be as inclusive as possible (e.g., requiring an employment contract regardless of length, type, or history of employment). Currently, WLBD provisions favour parents who are active in the labour market. For instance, the WLBD suggests that Member States may require workers to have a history of employment to qualify for paternity benefits, but this period should not exceed six months. For parental leave, fathers may be required to meet a work qualification period not exceeding one year. However, some countries, such as Ireland and Slovakia, require longer employment periods for fathers to access paternity benefits. This non-compliance with eligibility criteria excludes individuals with shorter employment durations from receiving benefits. The longer the qualifying period, the less accessible employment-based benefits become, particularly for parents with less stable careers or those working on short-term or temporary contracts (Dobrotić and Blum 2019).
Coverage of Care Recipients: Work-family policies, such as carers’ leave and flexible work arrangements, should include provisions for those who care for relatives—not just parents—as required by the WLBD. The Directive defines carers as workers providing personal care to a relative or a person living in the same household. ‘Relative’ includes a worker’s son, daughter, mother, father, spouse, or partner in a civil partnership where recognized by national law. However, many countries have reformed flexible work arrangement policies without extending coverage to relatives. This exclusion is problematic because it limits the social rights of carers, the majority of whom are women (Eurocarers 2021), thereby hindering the Commission’s goal of promoting gender equality. By extending flexible work arrangements to carers, Member States can facilitate greater gender equality.
3. Policy implementation must focus on enhancing instrumental resources, such as clear information and accessible application procedures, to ensure not only formal access to parental leave rights but also as means to ensure the actual use of these rights.
Research indicates that beyond offering high levels of compensation for non-transferable parental leave, increasing uptake among fathers and promoting gender equality also requires these instrumental resources to facilitate access to leave (De La Porte et al. 2023). Instrumental resources are also crucial because they provide the support and procedural channels necessary for claiming and receiving benefits (Ferrera, Corti, and Keune 2023). This is important as social rights are vital for the legitimation of the welfare state by citizens (Rothstein and Stolle 2008).
First, instrumental resources should include clear and comprehensive information on new parental leave rights, covering terminology, details on rights, compensation for different schemes, and eligibility criteria (De La Porte et al. 2023). This information can be disseminated through various tools, such as pictograms and infographics, alongside formal application procedures. For example, Denmark uses gender-neutral terminology along with pictograms to indicate that the government offers equal leave to both parents. Information about new leave schemes or adjustments should also be widely communicated through workplace HR departments to staff and through public agencies and unions to the wider public. Additionally, general information could be complemented by targeted information campaigns for highly gendered sectors with low take-up of father-specific leave, utilizing social media, advertisements, and pamphlets.
Second, administrative procedures, another key instrumental resource, should be clear and simple to facilitate access to parental leave. The application process should be streamlined so that individuals need to use only one user-friendly system to access all parental leave rights and benefits. If the right to leave and access to compensation require separate applications, these should be simplified and integrated, or the system should automatically direct applicants to the relevant compensation application upon submitting a leave request. Formal application procedures should also help families plan their leave, allowing parents to structure leave-taking between them, including options for part-time leave, joint leave, or successive leave periods. These instruments should also provide information about remuneration during different leave periods. While leave policies may be complex, access to them should not be; the role of public administration is to simplify and facilitate access from the outset. Finally, national policymakers and bureaucrats, along with actors close to citizens, including municipalities, social insurance agencies, employer organizations, unions, and civil society organizations, must commit to supporting these instrumental resources (De la Porte et al. 2023).
4. Beyond gender-sensitive policy design and implementation, facilitating leave-taking among fathers requires a broader cultural change that values caregiving as a shared responsibility for both men and women.
Workplaces and other institutions should endorse this cultural shift. Workplace norms, such as a masculine culture that promotes long hours and unwavering attachment to work, can dissuade fathers from taking parental leave (Valarino and Gauthier 2016; Thébaud and Pedulla 2016). Men often encounter negative social stigma when they utilize leave policies or flexible work arrangements, stemming from the perception that they are violating traditional norms of masculinity (Berdahl and Moon 2013; Rudman and Mescher 2013; Vandello et al. 2013). Additionally, men are influenced by their beliefs about what other men desire, making them more likely to take leave if they observe their peers doing so (Dahl, Løken, and Mogstad 2014; Thébaud and Pedulla 2016).
Therefore, employers, particularly top and middle-level managers, need to communicate and signal to their employees that taking parental leave is normal and acceptable. For example, in Denmark and the Netherlands, following the adoption of new earmarked parental leave after WLBD, many organizations, including unions and employers, launched information campaigns to promote cultural change, demonstrating that it is normal for men to take parental leave and participate more in the day-to-day care of their children (De La Porte et al. 2023). Government actors, civil society, and the media can also contribute to cultural change by proactively discussing and debating the use and benefits of work-life balance policies in public forums, thereby encouraging fathers and other caregivers to take leave.
Acknowledgements
This brief was supported by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. N. 101061198
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[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2017:252:FIN
[2] See database for analysis of compliance.
[3] Ireland became the fourth country that is compliant with non-transferable parental leave stipulation from August 1, 2024 when it extended paid parent’s leave to 9 weeks.
[4] In some countries, a ceiling may be set on earnings-related payments so that higher paid workers receive proportionately less of their earnings.
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