The role of employers in reducing the implementation gap in leave policies

Abstract

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Money Matters! Evidence From a Survey Experiment on Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment Across Contexts in Germany

“…Second, the welfare state and labor market reforms in recent years have increased the pressure to pursue paid work. In addition to cutting benefits to "activate" the unemployed (Fleckenstein 2008 for Germany), policy makers have also sought to increase the incentives for mothers to reenter the labor market after childbirth by providing state-subsidized childcare and shortening paid parental leave periods (Frodermann, Wrohlich, and Zucco 2023;hipp, Schlüter, and Molina 2022;Zoch and hondralis 2017). Normative pressures on mothers to pursue paid work and avoid dependence on welfare benefits may have increased; furthermore, there may be a perception that employment is a normative obligation for mothersespecially for those who are seen as weakly integrated into society, such as welfare recipients and migrants (Geerdink et al, 2022;Ishizuka 2021;Vandoninck, Meeusen, and Dejaeghere 2018).…”