Companies have repeatedly complained that parental allowance is taking away their staff. A study has now refuted these overly great fears.
The introduction of parental allowance with longer absences, especially for mothers, has no long-term negative impact on companies. This was the result of a study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg together with the Federal Institute for Population Research (BIB, Wiesbaden).
Although the replacement of childcare allowance with parental allowance led to a short-term decline in employment, particularly in small and medium-sized companies, the IAB researchers found that there were no long-term negative effects on employment, wages or the continued existence of companies.
Up to 1,800 euros parental allowance
Under the parental allowance’s predecessor, childcare allowance, mothers received an amount of 450 euros per month for around twelve months. Since 2007, childcare allowance has been replaced by parental allowance. This is paid out depending on previous net income, with the maximum amount being 1,800 euros per month.
While under the childcare allowance regulations around 40 percent of mothers returned to work within twelve months of giving birth, with parental allowance the figure was only 20 percent. However, this had no negative consequences in the long term.
Parental leave replacement with good long-term prospects
It has been shown that newly hired parental leave replacements have a good chance of staying with the company for longer than twelve months. “Accordingly, parental leave replacements could in many cases be a path to permanent employment,” said Mathias Huebener, one of the authors of the study.
Source: Stern
