The Executive Yuan is planning to send a proposal to increase parental leave from six months to seven months for both mothers and fathers to the Legislative Yuan before the end of the year, an official said yesterday.
That follows a statement by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) at a Legislative Yuan meeting on Tuesday that the Cabinet is mulling changes to the insurance laws governing parental leave.
That would involve amending the Employment Insurance Act (就業保險法) for private employees, the Civil Servants and Educators’ Insurance Act (公教人員保險法) for teachers and government workers, and the Act of Insurance for Military Personnel (軍人保險條例).
Photo: CNA
The amendments to Article 19-2 of the Employment Insurance Act would have to take into consideration the standards for how leave allowances are to be paid out, and for how long, an official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said yesterday.
The amendments must also consider whether the Ministry of Labor’s trial flexible parental leave program is viable, they said.
The program, initiated on May 9 last year, allows parents to take parental leave in terms of days, as opposed to current regulations, in terms of months, with the maximum leave capped at six months.
The Enforcement Rules of the Employment Insurance Act states that parents taking parental leave for less than one month would be considered to have taken one whole month of leave, the source said.
At issue is whether the additional days parents take should be considered flexible parental leave or a different type of leave, the official said.
Some groups have suggested that new types of leave should be introduced, such as flexible paid parental leave or family care leave, the source said, adding that this should be clarified before determining leave allowances.
How the allowance should be calculated would also involve the Employment Insurance Fund, which, as of the end of last year, stood at NT$175.6 billion (US$5.35 billion), the official said.
The number of workers eligible for parental leave allowance increased from 82,409 in 2021 to 93,587 last year, primarily due to a government subsidy, which comprises 20 percent of the wage of the parent who asked to take unpaid parental leave, they said.
The subsidy and the allowance meant that parents would receive about 80 percent of their original wage, resulting in a 14 percent increase in the number of parents applying for the allowance, the source said.
Relaxation of regulations in 2022 allowing both parents to apply for the allowance saw more than 30,000 applicants last year, up 54 percent from before 2022, they said.
Statistics show that males applying for the allowance rose by 27 percent compared with pre-2022 levels, showing an increased willingness by men to shoulder the responsibility of raising children, the source said.
Using an example of both parents’ wages calculated based on an average monthly insurance rate of NT$38,200, each parent would receive NT$30,560 per month for a combined total of NT$366,720 over six months each.
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