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The Finnish government has announced plans to extend paternity leave to give new fathers the same paid leave as new mothers.
The plans were announced Wednesday by Finnish Minister of Health and Welfare, Aino-Kaisa Pekonen. She said the move was aimed at improving gender equality while increasing the declining birth rate in the country.
Pregnant women are also entitled to maternity leave one month before the expected date of birth.
According to the plans, both parents receive a bonus of 164 days (around 6.6 months) and the parents can transfer 69 days of their quota to the other parent.
A single parent would have access to the daily allowance rates for both parents.
The increase in paternity leave and other reforms will increase costs by around € 100 million and take effect in the fall of 2021 at the earliest.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said earlier that her country still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality, and she wanted fathers to spend more time with their children when they were young.
Sweden’s northern neighbor, Sweden, has the most generous parental leave system in Europe 240 days after the birth of a baby.
