Parental leave within the broader employment trajectory. What can we learn from administrative records?

• Published date: 18 September 2017
• Pages: 607-627
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2017-0109
• Date: 18 September 2017
• Author: Nevena Zhelyazkova,Gilbert Ritschard
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Parental leave within the broader

employment trajectory

What can we learn from administrative

records?

Nevena Zhelyazkova

Department of Governance and Regulation, Universite Paris Dauphine,

Paris, France, and

Gilbert Ritschard

NCCR LIVES, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of parental leave use and long-term

employment trajectories of parents in Luxembourg based on anonymous administrative records. This is the

first systematic analysis of parental leave take-up rates and return rates for Luxembourg using a large and

reliable data set.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors use highly detailed administrative data to calculate take-up

and return rates for parental leave for both men and women working in Luxembourg. To gain deeper insights

into the employment trajectories of parents, the authors deploy the visualisation tools of the TraMineR

package, which allow the authors to trace developments over time.

Findings –The authors estimate take-up rates for parental leave at 72 per cent for mothers and 13 per cent

for fathers. The return rates for mothers are 88.4, 99.4 and 70.8 per cent depending on whether they took

full-time, part-time or no parental leave. In contrast, over 95 per cent of fathers remain employed following

parental leave. The trajectory analysis reveals that the event of birth is a clear turning point for the majority

of the female trajectories, but not for the male ones.

Originality/value –The paper contributes to the literature in at least several ways. First, this is the first

available paper presenting the situation in Luxembourg using a large and reliable data set. Second, by

including fathers in the analysis, the authors contribute to the available knowledge of male use of parental

leave, which has been the subject of continued policy efforts in the past decades. Finally, the authors show

how parental leave can be analysed using sequence analysis tools and how this method offers additional,

holistic insights into work-family patterns over time.

Keywords Work-family reconciliation, Parental leave, Employment trajectory, Sequence analysis

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

This paper presents an analysis of parental leave use and the employment trajectories

of parents in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. We contribute to the literature in at

least three ways. First, we provide the first systematic estimation of parental leave take-up

and return rates for both men and women in Luxembourg using a large and

reliable administrative data set. Our findings can be used as a point of reference for

international comparisons or evaluations of further developments in Luxembourg.

Second, although it may seem surprising, Luxembourg was one of the few countries in the

European Union where take-up rates of leave for fathers already exceeded 10 per cent in

the early 2000s (Plantenga and Remery, 2005). A further contribution is, therefore, to

present the parental leave scheme in detail. Finally, we show how the analysis of parental

leave can be enriched by positioning it within the broader employment trajectory of

parents. To this end, we use the sequence analysis tools from the TraMineR package

(Gabadinho et al., 2011), which allow us to reconstruct trajectories along a temporal

dimension and move beyond the employed/not employed dichotomy. These three points

are elaborated be low.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 36 No. 7, 2017

pp. 607-627

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2017-0109

Received 1 December 2016

Revised 12 May 2017

14 August 2017

Accepted 24 August 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

607

Parental leave

First, it is important to emphasisethat presently there is onlylimited information about the

use of parental leavein Luxembourg. The only source of information on take-uprates (i.e. the

fraction of users from all potentially eligible beneficiaries) is the evaluation of the parental

leave scheme carriedout by KPMG Assurance Advisory Luxembourg(2002), which is based

on a relatively small sample. Take-up rates are likely to have increased since then, as the

biennial reportsof the Luxembourg Ministry of Familyand Integration show that the number

of users is increasing over time[1].These figures are further elaborated in the report compiled

by Plasman and Sissoko (2005) as part of the work of the European Commission’s Expert

Group on Gender, Social Inclusion and Employment funded by the European Commission.

The only availableacademic paper, addressingtake-up of parentalleave in Luxembourg is the

paper by Valentova (2011). Her analysis, however, is based on anticipated use of the leave

(respondents were asked what they would do if they had a child) and included only

Luxembourgish residents, which excludes a large fraction of the Luxembourgish workforce

(about 30 per cent daily commuters from Germany, France and Belgium).

Second, the GrandDuchy of Luxembourg is an interestingcase for the analysis of parental

leave. Although previous literature has consistently labelled Luxembourg as corporatist or

conservative(Hantrais, 1997; Meulders and O’Dorchai, 2004; Valentova, 2006, 2011), i.e. aimed

at implicitly encouraging the gendered division of paid and unpaid work in the family, the

Grand Duchy has designed a generous and gender-egalitarian policy, which researchers

De Henau et al. (2007, p. 79) have ranked as the one in Europe with the highest potential to

achieve gender equality. An especiallyinteresting component is the availability of paid leave

for fathers, whichis non-transferable to mothers. Effectively, the scheme is comparable to the

Scandinavian systems, where parts of the leave are granted on a “use-it-or-lose-it”basis for

fathers andwhich have been proven effective inincreasing the total numbers of fatherstaking

parental leave (Kluve and Tamm, 2012; Ekberg et al., 2013).

Third, by reconstructing the employment trajectories of parents over the substantial

time span of eight years, we can trace how parents interact with the social security system

beyond parental leave and to gain an insight into the broader developments in their

employment surrounding the birth of a child in the household. This analysis is inspired by

recent political and academic discourse on social policy concerning re-thinking social and

employment policy to target not only specific risks, but also to ensure continuation of

employability and human capital (Klammer, 2004; Bovenberg, 2008). It is therefore

important to undertake policy analysis within a framework allowing a multi-dimensional

and longitudinal perspective. In this paper, we take advantage of the richness of the

available administrative data and show how methods for sequence analysis can offer

complementary insights into the study of individuals’trajectories.

2. Theoretical background and literature review

In this paper we use the international definitions of parental leave as used by the

International Network on Leave Policies & Research (2016) and Council Directive 96/34/EC

of 3 June 1996. It is important to emphasise three characteristics of parental leave that

distinguish it from other leave policies. First, the purpose of the policy is to provide time for

taking care of a young child and not for the physical recovery of the mother (maternity

leave). Second, the parental leave is gender-egalitarian, i.e. it is available to both men and

women. Third, the policy is accompanied by a job guarantee. That is, employers are legally

obliged to reinstate parents returning from parental leave to their previous position or to an

equivalent one. The job guarantee component of parental leave distinguishes it from other

schemes, such as cash-for-care benefits aimed at assisting financially parents who do not

participate in the labour force.

Although parental leave can be clearly defined in theory, leave provisions in different

countries do not always allow a clear-cut distinction (International Network on Leave

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