Babies and Bosses – Findings and Insights

1. Babies and Bosses – Findings and Insights Presentation: Work, Families & Wellbeing Forum 5 May 2006, Canberra Willem Adema (www.oecd.org/els/social/familyfriendly)

2. Babies and Bosses: Finding a better balance of work and family commitments is a key policy challenge as it influences - Parental labour market outcomes, - Family outcomes, and - The shape of future societies.

3. Outline • Some outcomes • What are the underlying objectives of work and family reconciliation policies across countries? • What are policy instruments that are being used and to what effect? • Some key challenges • What next for OECD work on family policy?

4. Everywhere women are increasingly in paid work, but birth-rate trends differ

5. A different balance of underlying policy objectives across countries. • Fertility concerns – Japan, Korea, Germany, Switzerland • Gender equity – Nordic countries and Portugal • Cognitive development and early education – Nordic countries and New Zealand (to a lesser extent, Australia, Austria, Japan and the UK) • Economic growth, labour supply – all countries • Reducing child poverty, thereby enhancing child development – Australia, New Zealand, UK

6. A continuum of support during childhood • Policies in Denmark, Sweden, and to a lesser extent Québec, Canada help parents to ‘realistically’ plan their care and work commitments, while employers can be reasonably certain about whether and when employees will be in work. • Policy development requires good co-ordination of different public agencies or central policy discharge • Universal Danish and Swedish models are expensive, but targeting can contain overall outlays.

7. The role of parental leave • Parental leave should be discussed in the overall context of supports, not as a stand alone issue. • From a narrow labour supply perspective the optimal leave period is around 4-5 months; in many countries leave is up to 1 year due to child development concerns • Staff-to-child ratios make formal childcare for the very young expensive and has contributed to parental home care payments up to age 3 in Austria and Finland. This hampers both gender equity, labour supply and growth • Nordic countries and Portugal: Paid father quota and individualisation of leave entitlements

8. Public investment in childcare • Public investment in childcare is rising in many but for different reasons see: - gender equity, labour supply, cognitive development, education, helping low-income (sole parent) families, address quality concerns - Preferred mix of financing when building up childcare systems: targeted capital subsidies, earmarked support for parents, special needs groups • Public Spending in Australia is low by international comparison

9. Some indicators on formal early care and education support across the OECD

10. A better mapping of work and school hours is higher on the agenda than before • Out-of-school-hours care is increasingly seen as a priority in OECD countries • Make better use of existing publicly financed school facilities • Relatively small investment can help a large number of families until ‘teens’. • In some countries institutional barriers have to be overcome, as in Sweden where education authorities supervise OSH services, extended schools in the UK • There will be considerable interest in the Australian experience with extending OSH-care support

11. Sole parent families • Passive benefit support for sole parents has contributed to low employment rates – around 50% compared to around 75% in the Nordic countries, and high poverty rates • An comprehensive policy approach towards parents on income support, regardless of household status, which involves, employment and care supports, as well as participation requirements is key to reduce the child poverty risk. • Recent reform has moved Australia towards the international ‘norm’

12. A high poverty risk for non-employed sole parent families. Child poverty rates (%) among sole parent families by parental employment status

13. Financial incentives matter to parental choices within access constraints • Rather than simple individualization of tax systems, it is the degree of ‘neutrality’ of tax/benefit towards second earners in households which matters • Financial incentives vary by age, home care payments • Spousal benefits and/or childcare financing rules can affect hours of work, e.g. Japan, Portugal, and New Zealand • Availability of childcare support is often crucial to work decision of sole parents and ‘second earners’

14. Workplace practices • Family-friendly workplace are essential : they can render public policies ineffective, e.g. Japan • Intuitively, the ‘business case’ is strong, so why is there not more employer-provided workplace support? • Governments are reluctant to intervene, e.g. prizes awareness campaigns, which means that flexible practises are often only available topublic sector workers and/or highly skilled • Audits’ towards provision of practical and tailored advice to workplaces involve re-assessment and long-term commitment, but such initiatives are small scale

15. Maternal employment is high in Australia Zealand, but not when children are young

16. Workplace practices - continued • Part-time employment is the main form of working-time flexibility. • Time-related support is key to Dutch policy; Swedish parents are entitled to reduce working hours until their youngest child enters school; and the UK provides ‘third-way’ with ‘right to ask’ policy • Long hours are an issue in Japan, Australia and UK • Glass ceiling seems ‘thicker’ in Sweden than in Canada

17. In some countries, labour supply concerns will underpin the need for more family-friendly support Total labour force from 1980 to 2000, and projections from 2005 to 2030, in thousands ‘Constant rates’: assumes constant labour force participation rates for men and women from 2000 to 2030; ’Gender equity in participation rates’: assumes that female participation rates reach current male participation rates in each country by 2030.

18. Key challenges • Remove barriers to work for low-income families, and ensure good care for children. • A better mapping of different policy objectives and linkages between different policies and public agencies in policy development : Towards a continuum of support throughout childhood • Fathers AND mothers need to change in their use of family-friendly workplace supports.

19. Ministerial mandate and future work • Overview Babies and Bosses issue • Family database • Project assessing the economic position of children and the effectiveness of policy. • Factors affecting child development, longitudinal evidence, micro studies