An amendment proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) would allow a new parent to take partially paid leave for a full year.
Under the current law, in families with two incomes, each parent can apply for half a year of leave at 60 percent of their regular salary, or one parent can apply for one year of leave, but they would only receive 60 percent of their salary for the first six months.
Wan has proposed amending the Employment Insurance Act (就業保險法) to allow one parent to take a year of leave at 60 percent of their regular salary.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Since 2009, only 18.1 percent of dual-income families have applied for one year of leave, Wan said, adding that it is evidence that the current policy does not meet the needs of most families.
“It is not easy raising kids, and most families today are dual-income households, but of the 616,958 dual-income families that had babies last year, only 136,476 applied for one year of leave,” she said.
To receive the full benefits of the current policy, which aims to divide the responsibility of childcare, men are also required to stay at home with their children, she said.
However, over the past 10 years, only 17 percent of new fathers have applied for partially paid leave, showing that the policy is ineffective, she said, adding that in most cases, families receive less income than they would otherwise have been entitled to.
“The low birthrate is a national security problem. The government cannot afford to be rigid in its policies. It is better to loosen the regulations and let couples decide themselves who will take leave,” she said.
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