DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16564540
title: The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset

description: The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset covers maternity, co-parent, paid parental, and job-protected leave regulations across 21 European countries for 55 years, spanning the period from 1970 to 2024. The dataset primarily focuses on policies that shape the length of leave for mothers and their co-parents, and how leave can be shared between them. It provides harmonised data that enables comparisons of policies both across countries and over time, including 33 variables and country-specific reform timelines.This upload includes both the full documentation and the accompanying workbook. The documentation serves as a guide to understanding and working with the EPLP dataset by explaining its scope, data collection guidelines, definitions, and assumptions. It also includes the dataset’s codebook, an overview of country-specific reforms that affected statutory leave duration, and the main reference sources, which consist of legal documents, official government websites, and secondary literature.The workbook contains the dataset itself, additional notes to support accurate interpretation, and the complete list of reference sources. Together, the documentation and workbook provide a comprehensive toolkit for researchers, policymakers, and others interested in exploring parenting leave duration policies in Europe using quantitative approaches.The EPLP Dataset has been developed with great care. However, as with any large-scale data collection effort, some missing information or inadvertent errors may still be present. Feedback, corrections, or suggestions for improvement are welcome and will help enhance the quality and reliability of potential future updates.Website and contact: https://eplp-dataset.org/List of countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United KingdomList of variables






Category (and prefix)



Variable name



Label





Maternity leave (mat)



mat_m_ld_bb



Mandatory maternity leave duration before birth





mat_m _ld_ab



Mandatory maternity leave duration after birth





mat_v_ld_bb



Voluntary maternity leave duration before birth (maximum duration)





mat_v_ld_ab



Voluntary maternity leave duration after birth (maximum duration)





Co-parent leave (co)



co_ld



Co-parent leave duration (maximum duration)





Job-protected leave after birth (jp)



jp_ld_m



Job-protected leave duration for birth mothers (maximum duration)





jp_ld_cp



Job-protected leave duration for co-parents (maximum duration)





jp_part_time



Job-protected leave is longer if taken part-time





jp_later



Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time





Paid parental leave (maximum duration) - Dimension 1 (par1)



par1_ld



Paid parental leave duration (maximum duration)





par1_fr



Amount of benefits per month (with maximum duration)





par1_rr



Replacement rate (with maximum duration)





par1_cap



Monthly cap (with maximum duration)





par1_for_whom



Mothers only, co-parents only, or both





par1_second_parent



Additional time for second parent if the first parent takes the maximum leave duration





par1_work



Possibility to work / earn money during parts of the leave





par1_later



Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time





Paid parental leave (highest monthly flat rate) - Dimension 2 (par2)



par2_ld



Paid parental leave duration (with highest flat rate)





par2_fr



Amount of benefits per month (with highest flat rate)





par2_for_whom



Mothers only, co-parents only, or both





par2_second_parent



Additional time for second parent if the first parent takes the maximum leave duration





par2_work



Possibility to work / earn money during parts of the leave





par2_later



Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time





Paid parental leave (highest replacement rate) - Dimension 3 (par3)



par3_ld



Paid parental leave duration (with highest replacement rate)





par3_rr



Replacement rate (with highest replacement rate)





par3_cap



Monthly cap (with highest replacement rate)





par3_for_whom



Mothers only, co-parents only, or both





par3_second_parent



Additional time for second parent if the first parent takes the maximum leave duration





par3_work



Possibility to work / earn money during parts of the leave





par3_later



Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time





Additional variables



par_incentives



Incentives for parents to share parental leave





user_note



User note





currency



Country currency





Funder: This work was supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Data:Research:Austria Grant for the Skill-PAL project; project number: DATA_2023-39_Skill-PAL)