Policy change and fathers’ usage of parental leave in Germany – an analysis of the years 1999-2009

Esther Geisler, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Michaela Kreyenfeld, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Fathers and their contribution to the care of children have become more and more a focus of media and research in the last years. In Germany, particularly the reform of the parental leave benefit system in 2007 has launched discussions about fathers’ and mothers’ roles in the family. We study the use of parental leave among fathers for the years 1999-2009 using data from the German microcensus. The main research question is: How has the introduction of an income-related parental leave benefit in 2007 changed fathers’ leave-taking behaviour in Germany? We examine how far employment characteristics as the type of sector and the type of contract as well as education influence men’s decision to use parental leave after they have become fathers and how these relationships changed with the reform. Previous studies for the Scandinavian countries have shown that fathers who work in the public sector are more likely to use leave. Regarding education the findings are mixed. On the one hand, it can be assumed that highly educated men are more likely to use leave due to their more gender-egalitarian values but on the other hand they have also higher opportunity costs for leaving the labour market temporarily. Our analysis shows that before the reform men’s education did not have a significant impact on behaviour. After the reform, men from all educational groups have become more likely to be on leave. However, the increase was strongest among highly educated men.