Transcript A Comparative Analysis of the Welfare State in OECD Countries

Babies and Bosses – Findings and Insights
Presentation:
Work, Families & Wellbeing
Forum
5 May 2006, Canberra
Willem Adema
(www.oecd.org/els/social/familyfriendly)
Babies and Bosses:
Finding a better balance of
work and family commitments
is a key policy challenge as it
influences
- Parental labour market
outcomes,
- Family outcomes, and
- The shape of future
societies.
Outline
• Some outcomes
• What are the underlying objectives of work and
family reconciliation policies across countries?
• What are policy instruments that are being used
and to what effect?
• Some key challenges
• What next for OECD work on family policy?
Everywhere women are increasingly in paid
work, but birth-rate trends differ
Full-time EPR
Part-time EPR
TFR (right axis)
90
4
80
60
TFR
3
50
2
40
30
1
20
AUS
FRA
JPN
NLD
NZL
SWE
USA
2002
1985
2002
1985
2002
1985
2002
1986
2002
1985
2002
1985
2002
1985
0
2002
10
1985
EPR in percentage
70
OECD
A different balance of underlying policy
objectives across countries.
• Fertility concerns – Japan, Korea, Germany, Switzerland
• Gender equity – Nordic countries and Portugal
• Cognitive development and early education – Nordic
countries and New Zealand (to a lesser extent, Australia,
Austria, Japan and the UK)
• Economic growth, labour supply – all countries
• Reducing child poverty, thereby enhancing child
development – Australia, New Zealand, UK
A continuum of support during childhood
• Policies in Denmark, Sweden, and to a lesser extent
Québec, Canada help parents to ‘realistically’ plan their
care and work commitments, while employers can be
reasonably certain about whether and when employees
will be in work.
• Policy development requires good co-ordination of
different public agencies or central policy discharge
• Universal Danish and Swedish models are expensive,
but targeting can contain overall outlays.
The role of parental leave
• Parental leave should be discussed in the overall context
of supports, not as a stand alone issue.
• From a narrow labour supply perspective the optimal
leave period is around 4-5 months; in many countries
leave is up to 1 year due to child development concerns
• Staff-to-child ratios make formal childcare for the very
young expensive and has contributed to parental home
care payments up to age 3 in Austria and Finland. This
hampers both gender equity, labour supply and growth
• Nordic countries and Portugal: Paid father quota and
individualisation of leave entitlements
Public investment in childcare
• Public investment in childcare is rising in many but for
different reasons see:
- gender equity, labour supply, cognitive development,
education, helping low-income (sole parent) families,
address quality concerns
- Preferred mix of financing when building up childcare
systems: targeted capital subsidies, earmarked support
for parents, special needs groups
• Public Spending in Australia is low by international
comparison
Some indicators on formal early care and
education support across the OECD
Participation (%)
1-2 year olds
Public spending
per cent of GDP
Net fee (% of
avg. earnings),
sole parent at
67% APW
Net fee (% of avg
earnings), couple
family at 133%
of APW
Australia
31
0.3
10
20
France
30
1.2
6
12
0.2
51
51
0
18
Ireland
Japan
Netherlands
17
0.3
6
14
New Zealand
39
0.4
10
34
Sweden
65
2.0
3
7
UK
26
0.4
14
27
A better mapping of work and school hours
is higher on the agenda than before
• Out-of-school-hours care is increasingly seen as a
priority in OECD countries
• Make better use of existing publicly financed school
facilities
• Relatively small investment can help a large number of
families until ‘teens’.
• In some countries institutional barriers have to be
overcome, as in Sweden where education authorities
supervise OSH services, extended schools in the UK
• There will be considerable interest in the Australian
experience with extending OSH-care support
Sole parent families
• Passive benefit support for sole parents has
contributed to low employment rates – around 50%
compared to around 75% in the Nordic countries, and
high poverty rates
• An comprehensive policy approach towards parents on
income support, regardless of household status, which
involves, employment and care supports, as well as
participation requirements is key to reduce the child
poverty risk.
• Recent reform has moved Australia towards the
international ‘norm’
A high poverty risk for non-employed sole
parent families.
Child poverty rates (%) among sole parent families by parental employment status
Not employed
Employed
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
USA
d
Ir ela
n
NZ
UK
Fran
ce
Aust
ralia
D
OEC
Nl
Japa
n
Swe
den
0
Financial incentives matter to parental
choices within access constraints
• Rather than simple individualization of tax systems, it
is the degree of ‘neutrality’ of tax/benefit towards
second earners in households which matters
• Financial incentives vary by age, home care payments
• Spousal benefits and/or childcare financing rules can
affect hours of work, e.g. Japan, Portugal, and New
Zealand
• Availability of childcare support is often crucial to
work decision of sole parents and ‘second earners’
Workplace practices
• Family-friendly workplace are essential : they can
render public policies ineffective, e.g. Japan
• Intuitively, the ‘business case’ is strong, so why is there
not more employer-provided workplace support?
• Governments are reluctant to intervene, e.g. prizes
awareness campaigns, which means that flexible
practises are often only available to public sector
workers and/or highly skilled
• Audits’ towards provision of practical and tailored
advice to workplaces involve re-assessment and longterm commitment, but such initiatives are small scale
Maternal employment is high in Australia
Zealand, but not when children are young
Under 6 PT
80
Under 6 FT
6 to 14 PT
6 to 14 FT
Female employment rate
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
a
str
Au
lia
Fra
e
nc
d
l an
Ir e
p
Ja
an
Ne
rla
th e
nd
s
Ne
la
ea
wZ
nd
ed
Sw
en
UK
Workplace practices - continued
• Part-time employment is the main form of workingtime flexibility.
• Time-related support is key to Dutch policy; Swedish
parents are entitled to reduce working hours until their
youngest child enters school; and the UK provides
‘third-way’ with ‘right to ask’ policy
• Long hours are an issue in Japan, Australia and UK
• Glass ceiling seems ‘thicker’ in Sweden than in
Canada
In some countries, labour supply concerns will
underpin the need for more family-friendly support
Total labour force from 1980 to 2000, and projections from 2005 to 2030, in thousands
65
13
Australia
Japan
12
60
11
55
10
Constant rates
9
Female workers
50
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
170
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
2015
2020
2025
2030
210
United States
EU-15
200
160
190
150
180
170
140
160
Constant rates
Female workers
130
150
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
2000
2005
2010
‘Constant rates’: assumes constant labour force participation rates for men and women from 2000 to 2030; ’Gender equity in
participation rates’: assumes that female participation rates reach current male participation rates in each country by 2030.
Key challenges
• Remove barriers to work for low-income families,
and ensure good care for children.
• A better mapping of different policy objectives and
linkages between different policies and public
agencies in policy development : Towards a
continuum of support throughout childhood
• Fathers AND mothers need to change in their use of
family-friendly workplace supports.
Ministerial mandate and future work
• Overview Babies and Bosses issue
• Family database
• Project assessing the economic position of children
and the effectiveness of policy.
• Factors affecting child development, longitudinal
evidence, micro studies