Excerpts from introduction:
This report reviews parental leave policies in 21 high-income countries, as of July 2008. The countries reviewed here include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union as a whole. Each country's profile presents the duration of leave, the level of financial support during leave (if any), the eligibility requirements for parents seeking to use leave, provisions for taking leave on a part-time basis, and whether workers may return to their previous jobs upon their return to work.
The terminology used to describe various types of leave across these countries varies widely (and is further complicated by the need to translate these national terms into English). This report describes three types of child-based leave: maternity, paternity, and parental leave. Maternity and paternity leave refer to time reserved for one parent's use, during pregnancy or immediately after the birth of a child. Parental leave refers to longer periods of leave for either or both parents, to be taken after maternity and paternity leave.
Most countries provide all three types of leave, although there are several notable exceptions. Australia and Switzerland, for example, provide only maternity leave, although Australian mothersmay transfer one week of this time to fathers. The United States offers one type of leave, available to both mothers and fathers, which this report identifies as parental leave. Most of the country profiles below describe national policies. However, in a few cases regional policies differ significantly within a given country. For example, Canada legislates parental leave on the provincial level; the resulting guarantees vary widely, from 52 weeks in most provinces to 70 weeks in Quebec. Regarding paid parental benefits, both Canada and Switzerland each have national policies, but the Canadian province of Quebec and the Swiss canton of Bern offer stronger social
protection. Similarly, the United States has no national legislation for paid parental leave, but several states have established social insurance schemes to support new parents. In each of these cases, country profiles attempt to cover the full range of policy environments.