A majority of the public support the notion of paid maternity leave as part of a government policy to boost the birth rate, government officials said yesterday, citing the results of a recent public opinion poll.
Sixty-three percent of the people responding to the poll said they support the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration’s plan to introduce partial paid maternity leave for women, officials from the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission said.
Fifty-seven percent said the maternity subsidy plan would definitely help spur childbirth, reverse the decline in the nation’s birth rate and raise the quality of child care, the officials said.
However, they said, 71 percent of respondents thought that the childbirth subsidy plan would cause problems in the workforce. These issues may causes businesses to retaliate, which in turn could cause female workers to lose their jobs or encounter more difficulty when trying to find employment, they said.
Meanwhile, the same poll also found that 72 percent of respondents favored the administration’s plan to introduce a preferential mortgage loan program aimed at reducing the financial burden on young people buying homes.
Sixty-eight percent said the government-subsidized home loan plan would help to encourage more young people to get married.
Interest-free loans would be offered to young couples seeking to buy their first home for two years after marriage and also to those seeking to upgrade to a larger property after they have children.
The telephone poll, conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, received 1,086 valid responses. It has a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
Both the maternity subsidy plan and the subsidized home loan plan were part of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign platform and are also part of Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s (劉兆玄) economic stimulus plan that was unveiled the previous Friday.
The two proposals, however, are not likely to be implemented next year since they are not included in next year’s general budget, which the Executive Yuan will forward to the legislature for approval in August.
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