What Does the Best Parental Leave Policy in the World Look Like?

When new parents get paid parental leave, lots of good things happen. Mothers and babies are healthier in the short and long term and families are more financially secure. When both parents take leave, babies are less likely to have low birthweight and less likely to be born preterm. Parents have an opportunity to bond with their babies, and they are better able to manage the physiological and psychological demands of the postchildbirth period and less likely to experience depression and burnout.

Despite the proven benefits of paid parental leave, the United States is the only high-income country that doesn’t fund it at a national level, for either parent. Many Americans have access to paid parental leave through their workplaces, but nearly three of four employees in the private sector aren’t offered any by their employer. Lower-earning workers are much less likely to have access: among the lowest-earning 10 percent of private sector U.S. workers, only about 5 percent are able to get paid family leave. Instead, some employees are guaranteed up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. But due to restrictive eligibility criteria such as minimum tenure, hours, and employer size, nearly half of U.S. employees don’t even qualify.

Paid parental leave policies in other countries vary widely in design, as do cultural norms and attitudes related to taking time off from work. All of these impact uptake. But even where new mothers’ uptake of parental leave is high, nonbirthing partners are most often much less likely to take advantage of the benefit.

Sweden’s paid parental leave policy represents the gold standard for its generous and thoughtfully designed policy, which has successfully incentivized even partners to take up parental leave benefits. Among new fathers in the European Union, those in Sweden take by far the highest proportion of state-subsidized leave.

Sweden’s Path to Success

In 1974, Sweden became the first country to establish a parental leave policy that included both parents. Initially, the policy allowed parents to divide the allocated 26 weeks however they wanted. But less than 1 percent of fathers actually took this leave, and it remained this way for two decades.

In 1995, Sweden adopted a “use it or lose it” approach, reserving at least 30 days of paid leave for each parent (later extended to 90 days), which led to more fathers taking paid leave.

The government introduced an additional reform in 2012: fathers could take up to 30 days during the first year after birth at the same time as the mother. This led to health improvements, particularly for the mother, such as fewer doctor visits for childbirth-related complications and fewer prescribed medications, including antianxiety drugs.

Today, parents in Sweden are entitled to 480 days of paid leave in total, meaning each parent can take up to 240 days. Partners can take up to 60 days at the same time as the mother. And as of July 2024, parents can transfer 45 days of their parental leave to another adult, including relatives and close friends, for childcare purposes. In addition to paid leave during the postpartum period, Sweden allows parents to use 96 of their allotted days when the child is between 4 and 12 years old.

But while generous, Sweden’s parental leave policy has some persistent challenges:

• For most leave days, parents are paid at least 80 percent of their salaries, with an approximate monthly cap of USD 4,600. For the remaining 90 days, parents are paid about USD 16 per day, so not everyone can afford to use all their leave days. One study found that fathers with lower income, those born abroad, or those who are self-employed are less likely to use their allocated days.
• While cultural norms have shifted, men who work in male-dominated fields are still less likely to take up this benefit than men working in female-dominated fields.
• Mothers in Sweden are still using more of the available paid leave days compared to fathers: 70 percent versus 30 percent.

The U.S. Is Leaving New Parents Behind

The United States is in the midst of a maternal health crisis. U.S. mothers are dying at more than double, sometimes triple, the rates as other high-income countries, with even higher rates among Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women. Most maternal deaths occur up to one year after giving birth. Additionally, at least one in seven women experiences postpartum depression, an upward trend. Parents in the U.S. also spend more money on childcare relative to their wages than parents in other high-income countries do.

Support for parents in the postpartum period — including paid parental leave — could be key to addressing this crisis.

But there’s some positive news. Progress has been made in states with stronger paid family leave policies — including 13 states and the District of Columbia — where parents and children have consistently better health outcomes than do states without paid family leave. Oregon, for example, offers one of the most generous parental leave policies in the country, including 12 weeks of paid, job-protected bonding leave for covered parents. Benefits are offered on a sliding scale, based on a percentage of wages, with the lowest-income workers receiving full pay. Workers who give birth can receive additional time for recovery from childbirth.

While proposals for establishing a federally funded parental leave policy in the United States continue to be developed, state action may be the likeliest path forward. But while many families would benefit from such state-level reforms, the majority of U.S. employees who live in states with no paid leave policy will continue to be left behind.

The author would like to thank Ylva Moberg of 瑞典斯德哥尔摩大学 and Molly Weston Williamson at the Center for American Progress for their review.