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 leave-parents-birth-adoption-2012.pdf | 123.21 KB |
Summary:
According to the 2010 Survey of Young Canadians, the vast majority (90%) of Canadian children aged 1 to 3 years living outside Quebec had mothers who took some type of leave from work at the time of the child's birth or adoption. One-quarter (26%) of these children had fathers who reported taking leave. The average length of time on leave was 44 weeks for mothers and 2.4 weeks for fathers. This leave time is often a combination of paid and unpaid leave. Although the current study cannot address income replacement or eligibility for government programs (CEIP/QPIP), the length of a parent's leave can be affected by their entitlements to leave, particularly paid leave.
Among children living in Quebec whose mothers were working prior to their birth or adoption, almost all had mothers who took leave (99%), with most (97%) taking paid leave. About three-quarters (76%) of children in Quebec had fathers who took leave. In terms of the total length of leave taken by parents in Quebec, mothers took about 5 weeks more leave and fathers about 3 weeks more leave than their counterparts elsewhere in Canada.
Leave differed according to mothers' and fathers' employment characteristics at the time of the survey, and child and maternal health at the time of the birth or adoption. Self-employment was particularly relevant: both mothers and fathers who were self-employed took shorter leaves, even after considering the child's sex, whether the child was first-born, the mother's age, and parental education and income. Among children whose mothers reported post-partum depression, mothers took longer leave. The findings suggest that parental employment characteristics and child and maternal health affect the amount of leave time parents take from work to spend with their child at the time of the birth or adoption.