Maternity Leave Duration and Female-Male Relative Labour Market Outcomes

The reform was found to significantly increase the amount of leave female employees took relative to male employees. There was an increase of about 1% in the proportion of time female employees aged 25-34 spent on leave relative to males, with almost half of this due to a fertility response and half due to an increase in maternity leave duration. The results also suggest that the expansion engendered a deterioration in relative female labour market outcomes, with empirical evidence indicating a decrease in female relative wages and an increase in relative female redundancies.