Leave Policies & Research

The International Network on Leave Policies and Research has been producing an annual review of leave policies and related research since 2005 (for earlier reviews, go to Archive 2005-2023). The review covers Maternity, Paternity and Parental leaves; leave to care for sick children and other employment-related measures to support working parents; and early childhood education and care policy.

The international review provides comparable information on leave policies in participating countries, in the form of country notes. Each country note is organised in four sections: Current leave and other employment-related policies to support parents; Relationship between leave policy and early childhood education and care policy; Changes in policy since the preceding review (including those relating to COVID-19); and Take-up of leave. Before 2018, the review also included a fifth section on Research and publications. In 2020, we included a sub-section on Policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The review also includes definitions of the main types of leave policies; and cross-country comparisons. These comparative overviews cover: each main type of leave; the relationship between leave and ECEC entitlements; and policy changes and developments since the previous review. We also include a technical appendix.

The 2024 International Review covers 51 countries. These are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay and Vietnam. Vietnam is a new country note joining the review this year for the first time.