Parental leave - Definition and Overview

Parental leave is the right to take time off work, paid or unpaid, to care for your child or make arrangements for your child's welfare. Often, the term parental leave includes maternity, paternity and adoption leave.

In most western countries parental leave is available if you have worked for your current employer for at least a year by the time you want to take the leave. In the UK for instance, working parents are given the right to 13 weeks of unpaid leave for each child up to the age of five.

An example of ample parental leave is Sweden, where all working parents are entitled to 16 months paid leave per child, the cost being shared between employer and State. To encourage greater paternal involvement in child-rearing, a minimum of 3 months out of the 16 is required to be used by the "minority" parent, in practice usually the father, and some Swedish political parties on the Left argue for legislation to oblige families to divide the 16 months equally between both parents.

There is currently a push to expand paid maternity leave in countries such as Australia and the United States which are a couple of the few developed countries left which do not have this right.

See also: parenting