Spain Set to Create Equal Maternity and Paternity Leave

Spain Set to Create Equal Maternity and Paternity Leave

Spanish parliament decided recently that they would agree with a proposal that was put forward by the Podemos Party to standardise both maternal and paternal leave.

Paternity leave for fathers is a welcome addition.

Current laws entitle Spanish fathers to have 13 days off work consecutively, which begins two days before a child is born, fostered or adopted. While fathers of three or more children are entitled to 20 days off it is still much shorter than the 16 weeks of maternity leave that Spanish mothers receive.

The current law does still allow for mothers to transfer up to 10 weeks of their 16 week maternity leave to fathers but this rule is on the way out after it was only used by 2% of couples.

This change in the rules means that Spain is catching up with the rest of Europe and it also allows Spanish couples to have an equal role when it comes to early parental duties. The government will compensate companies for the time that employees spend away from work and this was one of the biggest sticking points for the conservative parties in Spain.

The Popular Party (PP), headed up by the current interim Prime Minsiter of Spain Mariano Rajoy, has been against equal parental leave for some time. They feel that it will cost the government too much. Podemo countered this argument by saying that both the Spanish constitution and EU law forbid discriminating based on gender.

It could be a while until a new government budget is set to accommodate the change given the current political situation in Spain. Given that it could take until a new Prime Minister is elected the rule could soon be overturned if Rajoy and his PP win a majority in the upcoming third election.

What is more likely to happen is that Spain will be ruled by a grand coalition of mostly left-leaning parties that will ensure the ruling stays and that Spain will finally make good on a promise made in 2009, before the country was hit by a double-dip recession and people lost interest in a ruling that would increase government spending.

The ruling comes at quite the coincidental time for Spain as October 21^st marks the day when women begin “working for free” in a crude measurement of the gender pay gap in the country.

The data behind this imbalance comes from information taken from the entire adult population of Spain and the end result is that women are paid almost 20% less than men. Given that the EU and Spanish constitution state that gender discrimination isn’t allowed it is a bit misleading to say that women are deliberately paid less than men.

Another significance of this October 21^st date is that social and cultural norms leave women feeling the need to leave work early or work less so that they can take care of their families. This is another reason that women fail to go after high-paying careers and also stops them from pursuing a tertiary education, which also cuts down on their earning potential.

Now that new fathers are entitled to as much paid leave as mothers it is hoped that this imbalance will effectively rectify itself as time passes.