Sweden Takes Another Big Step in Parental Leave

Sweden launched a groundbreaking new law on Monday that allows grandparents to step in and get paid parental leave while taking care of their grandchildren for up to three months of a child's first year. The development comes after the Swedish parliament approved last December the government's proposal on transfer of parental allowance. This comes 50 years after the Scandinavian country became the first in the world to introduce paid parental leave for fathers and not just mothers, reports the AP. Today, fathers in Sweden take around 30% of paid parental leave. A look:

• Under the law, parents can transfer some of their generous parental leave allowance to the child's grandparents. A couple can transfer a maximum of 45 days to others, while a single parent can transfer 90 days.

• Swedes are entitled to be fully off work when their child is born. Parental benefit is paid out for 480 days, or about 16 months, per child. Of those, the compensation for 390 days is calculated based on a person's full income, while for the remaining 90 days, people get a fixed amount of $17 per day.
• Parents can also work reduced hours until the child is 8 years old, while government employees can get those reduced hours until the child turns 12.
• By contrast, the United States is one of only a handful of countries—and the only industrialized one—that doesn't have a national paid maternity leave policy. The Family and Medical Leave Act provides eligible American workers with up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave per year.
• Paid family leave programs have been created in 13 states and Washington, DC, although the parental leave offered in those places is generally about three months—just a fraction of Sweden's benefits. Even in states with paid leave, that time isn't transferable to grandparents unless they're acting as the child's parent, said Jared Make, VP at nonprofit A Better Balance. "Families often extend beyond the nuclear family," Make said. "Examples like Sweden show just how far behind the United States is. We have a lot of work to do to catch up with the rest of the industrialized world."

(More parental leave stories.)