Combining work and family – a challenge for equality planning
The overarching objective of this joint project between the Labour Institute for Economic Research, the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland
has been to evaluate the choices and costs related to family leave from
the perspective of both individuals and companies using broad
register-based longitudinal data, as well as information and
experiences gathered from companies.
Researchers
Publications
Project overview
The project has
produced new information on the factors affecting fathers’
choices of family leave by use of statistical analyses of large
register-based datasets. The analyses cover fathers who were employed
in the private or the public sector, as well as fathers who were
non-employed at the time of childbirth. Several factors are found to
explain why fathers do not go on family leave, or why they do not stay
longer on family leave. One important underlying factor is the
father’s labour market status: non-employed fathers often take no
family leave whatsoever. The relation between economical factors and
fathers’ use of family leave is complicated. Yet, the use of
parental leave increases with the father’s income level. This
suggests that the families of well-paid fathers can better bear the
income loss due to the father’s short family leave spell. Using
extensive statistical analysis for the first time for Finland, the
project also explores which kind of costs the use of family leave
incurs at the company and individual level in the private sector. The
project provides new information on the direct and indirect costs of
family leave faced by companies. The results indicate that the
companies’ direct costs of family leave are on average quite
small. The indirect costs, on the other hand, tend to have a negative
impact on firm profitability especially in female-dominated industries.
This has direct repercussions on the pay capacity of female-dominated
industries and thereby on the male–female wage gap.
The project has
also investigated how family leave of different length affects
women’s and men’s wages upon return from their leave. Using
linked employee-employer data that is representative of the private
sector, the analysis focuses on women giving birth to their first child
(or fathers having their first child) whose wages are compared to those
of similar but childless women (men). The mothers and fathers under
study were attached to the labour market already before childbirth and
returned after their leave either to their former or to another
employer. Hence the findings can be taken to stipulate a lower bound
for the wage penalty of having children. The results show that the wage
of a mother returning from family leave lags clearly behind that of
childless but otherwise similar women who have worked uninterruptedly,
but also that these negative wage effects fade out rather quickly after
the mother’s re-entrance into working life. The longer the family
leave spell, the higher and the more prolonged is the wage penalty,
however. A similar effect is not observable in the case of fathers due
to their typically very short family leave spells.
In addition a
separate research and development study was undertaken in five small
and middle-sized companies with the aim of producing an operational
model for equality planning that focuses on the cost problems caused by
the personnel’s use of family leave. For this purpose the study
analysed the opinions of both employees and employers on how family
leave related absences and breaks affect male and female wages and
career possibilities upon return to work. The interviewees felt that a
family friendly work culture enhances the employee’s return from
family leave. In all companies under study an equality plan was
prepared in cooperation with the staff. The equality plan was seen as a
useful tool by means of which the work community can promote practices
which support the combining of work and family.
Researchers
Labour Institute for Economic Research
Reija Lilja, Research Director (project co-ordinator)
Jenni-Maria Kellokumpu, Researcher
Email: firstname.lastname@labour.fi
The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy
Rita Asplund, Research Director
Mika Maliranta, Head of Unit
Edvard Johansson, Researcher
Sami Napari, Researcher
Pekka Vanhala, Research Assistant
Email: firstname.lastname@etla.fi
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
Kaisa Kauppinen, Research Professor
Mari Kupiainen, Researcher
Julia Evans, Researcher
Email: firstname.lastname@ttl.fi
The Social Insurance Institution of Finland
Ulla Hamalainen, Researcher
Pentti Takala, Researcher
Email: firstname.lastname@kela.fi
Publications
In English:
- Kellokumpu, J. (2007), Baby and pay: the family gap in Finland. The Labour Institute for Economic Research, Discussion Papers 236. [pdf]
- Napari, S. (2007), Is there a motherhood wage penalty in the Finnish private sector? ETLA, Discussion Papers No. 1107. [pdf]
For other publications (in Finnish and in English), please refer to the Publications (Julkaisut) section of Project Homepage.
The project was funded by the European Social Fund.
Project Homepage in Finnish
Page updated 31 Jan 2008.