Parental Leave Take-up and its Intensity. Do Partners’ Workplace Characteristics Matter?

Abstract

Abstract In the current article, we explore the effect of partners’ workplace characteristics on the take-up and intensity of parental leave by mothers and fathers. We use social security records data from 2004 to 2015 for Luxembourg. The results of the analysis reveal that the probability of taking full-time leave is substantially lower among mothers and fathers working in very small companies than among their counterparts in larger firms, whereas working in a small-sized company is related to higher probability of taking part-time leave. Mothers working in companies in predominantly female-dominated sectors, such as education, health, and social services, are more likely to take parental leave than their counterparts employed in other sectors. With regard to the effect of partners’ workplace characteristics, fathers’ take-up of parental leave is associated with the economy sector of their partner, whereas mothers’ take-up correlates with their partners’ workplace size.