TY  - JOUR
A1  - Spitzer, Sonja
A1  - Vignoli, Daniele
A1  - Schmidt, Eva-Maria
A1  - Kaldager Hart, Rannveig
A1  - Vargha, Lili
A1  - Greulich, Angela
A1  - Brini, Elisa
A1  - Bártová, Alžběta
A1  - Romero Balsas, Pedro
A1  - Reiter, Claudia
A1  - Kurowska, Anna
A1  - Lemoine, Adèle
A1  - Song, Zhanxiong
A1  - Herlitz, Agneta
A1  - Dančíková, Zuzana
A1  - Galdauskaitė, Dovilė
A1  - González, Libertad
A1  - Hatzivarnava-Kazassi, Evi
A1  - Honkaniemi, Helena
A1  - Juárez, Sol Pía
A1  - Lykke Kristiansen, Ida 
A1  - Pall, Katre
A1  - Pertold-Gebicka, Barbara
A1  - Rakar, Tatjana
A1  - Räsänen, Tapio
A1  - Rentzou, Konstantina
A1  - Thil, Laurène
A1  - Tuda, Dora
A1  - Wagner, Sander
A1  - Wrohlich, Katharina
T1  - The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) dataset: Leave duration entitlements for 21 countries from 1970 to 2024
Y1  - 2026/05/28
JF  - Demographic Research
JO  - Demographic Research
SN  - 1435-9871
SP  - 987
EP  - 1008
DO  - 10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.31
VL  - 54
IS  - 31
UR  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol54/31/
L1  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol54/31/54-31.pdf
L2  - https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol54/31/54-31.pdf
N2  - Background: Parenting leave policies shape how caregiving and paid work can be reconciled around the time of childbirth. They have important implications for fertility, employment, and gender equality. Still, there are limited quantitative cross-country data capturing long-term policy changes that impact how long parents can temporarily be away from work to care for their children, and how leave can be shared between them. 

Objective: The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset provides harmonised regulations on maternity, co-parent, paid parental, and job-protected leave across 21 European countries from 1970 to 2024. It focuses on policies that shape how long birth mothers and their co-parents can take leave. 

Methods: Statutory leave entitlements were compiled from national legal sources, official government publications, and secondary literature. We followed a consistent set of data collection rules to enable comparison across countries and over time. Because the dataset focuses on time away from the job, it considers only rights for employed parents. It includes 33 variables and also documents country-specific reform timelines. 

Contribution: The EPLP Dataset fills a gap in existing data sources by providing quantitative data across 55 years on policies that shape how long parents stay at home around birth and how leave is shared between them. In addition to leave duration and benefits, it covers recent policy instruments such as incentives for parents to share leave, and timing and flexibility of leave use. The dataset enables cross-national comparisons and the analysis of changes over time, and can be used to study the effects of policy reforms. 

ER  -