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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Np I have friends overseas. The pay isn’t 100% of your salary on maternity leave (and their pay is already lower). So once they have a baby, their salaries take a big hit. They can’t return to work earlier because it’s stigmatized and daycare don’t take babies before 1 (one friend mentioned before 3 but idk if that’s true). Once kids are school aged, they have the same issues that moms have here where school ends at 3 but work ends at 5, however aftercare’s aren’t plentiful. Many stick to one kid for financial and logistical reasons. My Norwegian friends own their own condo, but it’s a 2 bedroom. They only had one kid for space reasons. I’m sure none of those reasons are insurmountable for people who really want kids but maternity leave isn’t this panacea that it’s purported to be. [/quote]

I'm sure you understand that it varies by country.[b] In Norway, the pay is 80%[/b]. For one year of parental leave split between two parents.[b] Their pay takes a 20% hit [/b]but they don't have to do any work, and their jobs are protected.

Do you think things work better in the U.S., where there are 0 weeks of mandated paid parental leave for either parent? And only 40% of Americans have access to unpaid leave under FMLA? Do you think that's encouraging people to have babies more than 80% paid leave for a year?

And I ask again, why are we as a society okay with only women taking a salary hit for having children? Why shouldn't parents bear equal risk in bringing children into the world?

If your solution is to fund parental leave 100% of salary instead of 80% of salary, I'm all for it. But I strongly suspect that's not what you're suggesting. [/quote]

The max parental leave amount is $1,538 a week in Norway. It’s 80% if you have a lower wage job in Norway.  Stop being misleading.

[/quote]

Wages aren't comparable in the US and Norway. Norwegians pay a maximum of $300 in a healthcare costs (free for minors and pregnant women), have free higher education, have highly subsidized childcare (costs about $115/mo), and get a monthly cash benefit for all children under the age of 18 to offset the cost of having children (with an extra supplement for infants and single parents). [/quote]

Where are you getting your information and pls check the sliding scale. Only low income workers get that and they have to have individually paid into the system several years. You don’t just show up pregnant and your kid gets ER free delivery, snap and Medicaid like here.

Also, if you’re going to throw around “cost” data, you need to include what the employers or taxpayers are paying per month, not just the employee.  
United Nations data has a good breakdown they release every few years. [/quote]

All legal residents are automatically enrolled in free healthcare.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/norway

All legal residents have healthcare costs capped at around $300 USD annually (depends on exchange rate).

https://www.helsenorge.no/en/payment-for-health-services/user-fees-at-hospitals-and-outpatient-clinics/

Childcare is capped at approximately $290 USD per month for the highest income families. Low-income families receive 20 hours per week in free childcare, and families are generally not expected to pay more than 6% of their incomes for childcare.

https://nordics.info/show/artikel/childcare-infrastructure-in-the-nordic-countries

By contrast, Americans spend out-of-pocket between $3,478 and $5,266 per person per year for healthcare. (Probably more since this study is 6 years old.) So more than 10x Norway.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8572548/

Childcare is on average $1,300/mo, so more than 4x the cost in Norway.

https://blog.dol.gov/2024/11/19/new-data-childcare-costs-remain-an-almost-prohibitive-expense[/quote]

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