While the rate of men making use of parental leave has increased in recent years, there is still a great disparity between the number of women and men opting for part-time employment later on in their careers.
Last year, more than 11,000 people working in Luxembourg filed a demand for parental leave, out of whom more than half were men. Although this represents an uptick compared to previous years, some employers still have issues with men choosing to spend more time with their children.
Michelle Cloos from the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) commented: "We often find that there are more demands than there is willingness to accept them, with some businesses showing a backward mentality. For women it seems to be part of the plan that they miss work when having children, but when men ask for time off, employers first negotiate with them. There is still a stigma."
The same problem applies when men decide to switch from full-time to part-time employment to spend more time with their children.
However, the same stigma also seems to persist within couples, revealed Audrey Bousseling from the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). She stressed that at the moment, 78% of part-time employees in the Grand Duchy are women and explained that it is therefore important to start educating children about parental responsibilities early on to make sure that they understand that it is an equally shared job.
Cloos also drew attention to financial problems related to part-time work, such as not advancing as quickly in one's career or having a smaller pension: "We know that Luxembourg has one of the highest pension gaps between men and women with 44%, which is even higher than the wage gap and therefore requires action."
