8(38)
In 2006, Sweden elected a new Conservative-Liberal government which on
July 1, 2008 introduced a gender equality bonus. Simultaneously the
government also launched a homecare allowance for children up to three
years old; its adoption by municipalities was voluntary (see details of both
the reforms and their consequences for the direction of Swedish family
policy in Ferrarini and Duvander 2010). The gender equality bonus is a tax
credit that is paid to the parents’ tax account the year after the parental
leave is used. In essence, for every day that the parents share the leave
more equally or, in practice, for every day that the
mother
goes back to
work and the
father
uses the leave, the mother will receive a tax credit of
100 SEK (approx. 10 Euro). The bonus is gender-neutral and is aimed at an
equal division of the leave. It does not apply to the reserved months or the
days with the low flat rate and can thus be paid for a maximum of four and
a half months. All parents who have used the leave in a way that may
entitle them to the gender equality bonus will receive a letter from the
Swedish Social Insurance Agency encouraging them to apply for the bonus.
Then parents need to prove that the parent not on leave has been at work
or studying, a requirement aimed at increasing the labor force participation
in Sweden. Work or study can be proved, for example, by a salary slip or
proof of school enrolment. In many cases the bonus covers the loss in
household income when the father rather than the mother is on leave,
especially in low- and middle-income families (Duvander 2008a). This
applies especially to parents with relatively small income differences in the
household. The bonus, however, is paid the year after the leave is used,
which is a disincentive for using it.
It is possible to summarize the reforms introduced by the Conservative-
Liberal government as allowing more free choice regarding the gendered
aspect of parental leave, both encouraging gender equality (by reserved
months and a bonus) and allowing a traditional gendered division of leave
by supporting exits from the labor market for longer periods (homecare
allowance), a policy that is likely to be adopted primarily by mothers
(Ferrarini and Duvander 2010). The change of government, however, made
the first round of reforms in 1995 more oriented towards gender equality as
the homecare allowance was abolished shortly after its introduction. The
introduction of the second reserved month in combination with extending
the leave period by one month by the Social Democratic government may
be seen as more one-sided, but also less disputable as it did not challenge
women’s length of leave but only strengthened men’s opportunities to use
leave.
During the eight years the parental leave can be used, it is used by
practically all mothers and by around nine out of ten fathers (for details see
Duvander 2008b). For many parents state-legislated benefits are
complemented by extra benefits from the employer on the basis of
collective agreements. The considerable flexibility of parental leave use is
often exploited by parents; for example, by saving parts of leave to extend
summer vacations or reduce working hours during the child’s preschool
years. Also, leave may be extended by accepting a lower replacement level,
a strategy used especially by mothers (Eklund 2004). Most leave, however,
is used during the child’s first two years.
Not only do all mothers use leave, they also use most of the leave
entitlement. When parental leave was introduced in 1974 men used 0.5
percent of all days. Since then men’s share has increased to reach 22.3
percent in 2009. The development can be characterized as slow until the
end of the 1990s, and thereafter somewhat faster (see Figure 1).
