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eight - Mexico: leave policy, co-responsibility in childcare and informal employment
- Edited by Peter Moss, University College London Institute of Education, Ann-Zofie Duvander, Stockholm universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, Alison Koslowski, The University of Edinburgh
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- Book:
- Parental Leave and Beyond
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 27 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 April 2019, pp 129-146
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter analyses leave policy developments in Mexico, up to 2018, looking at the transition from a system based on Maternity Leave to a broader approach related to childhood and labour policies. Maternity Leave was anchored in the Mexican Constitution as early as 1917, in the context of the Mexican Revolution that transformed the country's culture and government. A century later fathers came to the fore with the introduction of Paternity Leave in 2012. The recent changes illustrate how the dual-earner/dual-carer model along with social policies supporting a caring fatherhood are spreading to Mexico as well as to the rest of Latin America.
We aim to identify structural conditioning factors, obstacles and challenges to improving leave policies in Mexico. We also review the proposals that have been generated during the last five years. Given the emerging research on leave policies in Latin America, an additional purpose is to integrate the specific features and challenges from this region into the international academic debate.
The chapter starts with a section introducing the context of leave policies in the Latin American region. We then present some basic information on Mexico and an overview of the development of leave policies, including a description of the legislative initiatives presented in the Congress of the Union ( Congreso de la Unión , the Federal Chamber of Deputies and Senate) between 2012 and mid-2017, which were designed to extend leave and increase co-responsibility between men and women for the care of children. We discuss structural impediments and challenges to improving leave policies in Mexico, some of which have been pointed out by international organisations, such as the informal economy, funding and the growth, complexity and fragmentation of ECEC services. We conclude by identifying the need to link leave and ECEC policies, in order to focus efforts not just on parents’ co-responsibility and equality but also on children's wellbeing. These policies can also act as pull factors for the formalisation of informal employment, so that the associated costs could then be reformulated as social investments.
The spread of the social politics of parenthood to Latin America
Research on the cultural and institutional construction of motherhood, fatherhood and the relationship between working parents, the labour market and social policies has spread all over the world.
thirteen - Portugal and Spain: two pathways in Southern Europe
- Edited by Sheila Kamerman, Columbia University, New York, Peter Moss, University College London Institute of Education
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- Book:
- The Politics of Parental Leave Policies
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 05 July 2022
- Print publication:
- 22 July 2009, pp 207-226
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Summary
Portugal
Maternity leave: 120 calendar days (17 weeks) at 100% of earnings or 150 days at 80%, with no ceiling. Mothers have to take 6 weeks after the birth of a child; the rest may be transferred to the father.
Paternity leave: 5 working days at 100% with no ceiling; obligatory.
Parental leave: 3 months per parent until child is 6 years. No payment except for 15 calendar days at 100% with no ceiling if taken by the father immediately after maternity or paternity leave.
Leave to care for children: 30 days a year per family for sick children under 10 years at 65% of average earnings; no time limit if a child is in hospital.
Other: 2 hours’ absence per working day per family for 12 months after a child's birth, without loss of earnings (paid by employer).
Spain
Maternity leave: 16 weeks at 100% up to a ceiling of €3.074 per month. Mothers can transfer up to 10 weeks to fathers or choose to take them part time over 20 weeks.
Paternity leave: 15 calendar days, 2 days to be taken after birth, the rest during/at the end of maternity leave, at 100%. May be taken part time with employer's agreement.
Parental leave: until child is 3 years; an individual entitlement. No payment, but some regional governments offer low flat-rate benefits.
Leave to care for dependants: 2 days per worker for a ‘seriously ill’ child or other family reasons, without loss of earnings (paid by employer).
Other: one hour's absence per working day per family for 9 months after a child's birth (paid by employer). Reduced hours may be consolidated to allow a 2–4 week extension of maternity leave. Working parents may reduce their working hours (from one eighth to half of working time) until a child is 8 years, without payment; some regional governments offer benefits for the working time reduction.
Portugal and Spain are member states of the European Union (EU). Portugal has a high level of maternal employment and a low level of female part-time employment. It is estimated that about three quarters of mothers are eligible for maternity leave. Although obligatory, in 2006 only 61% of fathers took paternity leave and 49% the 15 days of paid parental leave (however, take-up is underestimated as statistics exclude employees with special social protection regimes, for example, in the civil service and banks).