Babies and Bosses - Reconciling Work and Family Life
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About
Measures of family support include financial assistance for families through cash benefits or tax transfers, the provision of family services, including improved access to affordable and quality child care, access to parental leave, and greater flexibility in work arrangements towards better employment opportunities for families with young children, especially lone parents.
Reconciling work and family life involves two key goals for both individuals and society: being able to work, seeking self-fulfilment and earning an income to provide for one’s family; and providing the best care and nurturing for one's own children. These aspirations need not be mutually exclusive. However, a failure to balance work and care commitments has implications for either labour force or family decisions - or both. Parents - or would-be parents - may decide to delay having children, have fewer than they really want, or not have children at all.
If parents cannot achieve their desired work/family life balance, economic development is curtailed through reduced labour supply by parents. Meanwhile, a reduction in birth rates has obvious implications for future labour supply and the financial sustainability of social protection systems. As parenting is also crucial to child development, and thus the shape of future societies, policy makers have many reasons to help parents find a better work/family balance.
The OECD Social Policy Division has produced a series of publications to address the question. The Social Policy Division has also created the Family Database with indicators for all OECD countries categorised under 4 broad headings: the structure of families, the labour market position of families, Public policies for families and children, and Child outcomes. See more here.
Volume I - Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands
This volume looks at the challenges parents of young children confront when trying to square their work and care commitments, and the implications for social and labour market trends. In deciding how to balance work and family life, parents face a great many issues: their preference for providing parental care; formal and informal childcare; family income in- and-out of work; their access to family-friendly workplace arrangements and child-related leave programmes.
This first OECD review of the reconciliation of work and family life considers the current mix of family-friendly policies specifically in Australia, Denmark, and the Netherlands and explores how this policy balance contributes to different labour market and other societal outcomes in these three countries. See more here.
Volume II - Austria, Ireland and Japan
This study considers how a wide range of policies, including tax/benefit policies, childcare policies, and employment and workplace practices, help determine parental labour market outcomes and family formation in Austria, Ireland and Japan.
These three countries have experienced changes in female aspirations and labour force behaviour, while at the same time birth rates have dropped significantly. For some (potential) parents, having children (or having as many as desired) and fulfilling labour market aspirations are mutually exclusive activities. As a result, current labour supply is less than what it could be, and human capital is underused. This result reflects an inefficient use of labour market resources, and if this situation were to be perpetuated, it would limit economic growth relative to potential. The declining number of children also has obvious implications for the shape of future societies. This volume includes some options for policy reform towards a better reconciliation of work and family commitments in Austria, Ireland and Japan. See more here.
Volume III - New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland
Many parents and children in New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland are happy with their existing arrangements. However, many others feel seriously constrained in one way or another, and their personal well-being suffers as a consequence. Some people would like to have children, but do not see how they could square that major commitment with their current employment situation. Other parents are happy with the number of children in the family, but would like to work more, either to find a greater sense of self-fulfilment, or to increase family income, or both. Yet others are happy with their family situation, but may wish to work different or reduced hours to spend more time with their children. They often do not do so because they cannot afford a pay cut or because they do not want to put their career prospects at risk.
This study considers how a wide range of policies, including tax/benefit and childcare policies, and employment and workplace practices help determine parental labour market outcomes and may impinge on family formation. This volume also includes some options for policy reform towards a better reconciliation of work and family commitments in the three countries in question. See more here.
Volume IV - Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom
Many parents and children in Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are happy with their existing work and care outcomes as well.
This study covers Canada (in particular the province of Québec), Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It considers how a wide range of policies, including tax/benefit policies, childcare policy, and employment and workplace practices help determine parental labour market outcomes and may impinge on family formation. This volume also includes some options for policy reform towards a better reconciliation of work and family commitments in the four countries in question. See more here.
Volume V - A Synthesis of Findings for OECD Countries
This report, the last in the series, synthesises these findings and extends the scope to include other OECD countries. Based on OECD-wide indicators, it examines tax/benefit policies, parental leave systems, child and out-of-school-hours care support, and workplace practices that help determine parental labour market outcomes and family formation across the OECD.
See here for the full report, tables and charts.
