Berlin The planned “family start time” would mean annual additional costs of 556 million euros for employers. This emerges from the draft from the house of Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens), which is available to the Handelsblatt. After the birth of a child, the partner of the mother should in future be entitled to a paid career break of ten working days.
The money comes from the so-called U2 procedure – a contribution paid by the employers, from which the benefits of statutory maternity protection have been financed so far. For the self-employed, the health insurance companies should finance the break, the ministry expects costs “to the tune of a small amount in the millions”.
In view of the birth statistics, Paus assumes that there are around 470,000 applications for “family start time” each year. The aim of the law is for couples to take more care of work and family together after the birth of a child.
“With the birth of the child and the beginning of parental leave, couples set the course for the division of tasks in family and paid work,” says the draft bill. Since this division is maintained in almost all families for a long time, the decision has “great consequences for the entire career and lifetime income, including old-age security”.
The planned exemption should also benefit single parents. Instead of the second parent, they can nominate another person from their environment, who can then take a career break.
Family start time: Employers and union criticize
Employers and the Union see the idea critically. Parental leave and parental allowance have long been giving families the opportunity to take a break from work after birth, said the general manager of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), Steffen Kampeter. Politicians must decide whether they want to implement new exemption claims or alleviate the labor shortage. “You can’t do both together.”
The numerous attempts by the traffic light parties to burden companies with additional burdens in difficult times are completely out of date, said the Secretary General of the Economic Council of the CDU, Wolfgang Steiger. “If the state determines the possibility of fathers being released, it must also bear the costs and must not burden the burden on employers alone.”
In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed to introduce a two-week paid leave of absence. The draft is now being coordinated between the departments.
An alternative to the pay-as-you-go system would have been financing from taxes. The Greens parliamentary group said that this was not an option in view of the ongoing debate about the financing of basic child security.
The draft also says: By treating maternity benefits and the new partnership benefits equally, “non-wage labor costs purely related to women” would be avoided. That counteracts discrimination.
Read more about the family policy of the traffic light
The plans of the Federal Family Minister are criticized by the opposition and employers.
(Photo: dpa)
If the partner takes a month of parental allowance in the first month of the child’s life, the partner release benefit is offset against the month of parental allowance. For the first two weeks there is full wage compensation through the family start time and for the second half of the month parental allowance.
If, on the other hand, the month of parental allowance is not taken in the first month of life, there is no offsetting against the family start time, the ministry said. The parental allowance month is retained and can be taken at a later date.
EU directive should have been implemented earlier
Actually, Paus should have introduced a family start time on August 2nd, 2022. The background is an EU directive that provides for a “right to paternity leave for fathers or equal second parents”. This stipulates a period of “at least ten days” around the time of the birth of the child.
The aim is to “promote a more equal division of care and nursing tasks between women and men and to enable the early development of a close bond between fathers and children”. At the end of September, the EU Commission initiated infringement proceedings against Germany because so far there was not even a draft law.
In November, Paus justified the late implementation and emphasized at the time that the economic situation was “difficult”, especially for small and medium-sized companies. However, the leave of absence is another important building block for the compatibility of family and career: “By supporting the leave of absence, employers make an important contribution to this.”
From circles in the ministry it was said that in preliminary talks with the economy there had been “no outcry”. Many companies see the family start time as an opportunity to position themselves in a modern way and to retain good employees.
At SAP, for example, fathers have had the opportunity since January 2020 to be paid 20 percent of their working hours during the statutory eight-week maternity leave.
More: “Discussing tax allowances and more child benefits”: In an interview, Minister Lisa Paus calls for more money for families