4 - Paid Maternity and Parental Leave in Comparable OECD Countries

Summary

This section compares three OECD member countries with comparable GDP (total, US dollars per capita) to Australia (USD55,627) in 2021. These OECD member countries are Canada (USD50,722), Germany (USD58,663) and Sweden (USD59,576). This comparison is restricted to paid maternity and parental leave provisions, with particular attention to leave duration, funding and eligibility. For ease of comparison, local currencies were converted to the equivalent Australian dollar amount.

Gross domestic product (‘GDP’) is the standard measure of a country's value created by the production of goods and services in that country for a particular period. GDP also measures the income earned from such production or the total amount spent on final goods and services (less imports). Although GDP is the single most important indicator to capture economic activity, it falls short of providing an appropriate measure of people's material well being for which alternative indicators may be more appropriate. For example, analysing social welfare and employment benefits is not entirely dependent on GDP since GDP substantially focuses on economic growth. Therefore, this comparison will use ‘nominal GDP’ (or GDP at current prices or GDP in value) as an alternative indicator referring to US dollars per capita for the year 2021.

A Canada

As of 01 January 2022, Canadian entitlements available to mothers (maternity and parental leave combined) add to a maximum of 55 weeks paid at a full-time equivalent of CAD638 [AUD682] per week. The duration can be extended to a maximum of 84 weeks with a weekly payment of CAD638 [AUD682] for the first 15 weeks, followed by a weekly payment of CAD383 [AUD409] per week for the remaining 69 weeks.

In Canada, paid parental and maternity leave is administered through the Employee Insurance (‘EI’) program, enshrined in the Employment Insurance Act. The EI Program is managed by the federal Department of Employment and Social Development and is available to all Canadian residents, except Quebec residents, who are covered by Quebec's parental leave program. Under the EI Program, benefits are funded by premiums paid by employers and employees, based on a premium rate that applies to every CAD100 [AUD107] of insurable earnings to the maximum insurable earnings threshold as determined by the Employment Insurance Financing Board annually. The Act defines ‘insurable earnings’ as the total amount of earnings an insured person has from insurable employment.