söndag 26 juli 2009

Föräldrapenning - Parent money

My thought behind this post is explaining how we make a living trying to raise our child in the Swedish system. Our goal is to share alike.

For each child born in Sweden the parents have a right to stay at home for 480 days.
60 days have to be used by me, and 60 days have to be used by the child's other parent. If these 60 days aren't used by the other parent, I can't get at them.
180 days are possible to gift to the other parent.
Off course, we don't get full pay these days. The lowest amount one can get is 180 SEK (about 23,20 USD) a day. This you get even if you haven't worked a day in your life. Then there is tax, about 23%-30%. I had been working part time and met the requirements for raising my daily amount to 244 SEK (31,45 USD). Some of our days paid to stay at home will however still be at 180 SEK.

I had plans to work almost full term, but after having a stress reaction at work I went home four weeks before my due date. During this time I collected 244 SEK, mon-fri each week. 5/7 days a week.
My real delivery date ended up on march 10:th and from that date my partner had 10 extra paid days which he could use simultaneiously as me. He used these to get two weeks of work. Then he used vacation days. We both stayed at home for six weeks. Me on maternity money, he on vacation pay.
My partner then returned to work half days on wednesdays and whole thursdays and fridays. Monday, tuesday and half wednesdays he collects paternity money and since he's worked full time at a better paid job he gets more money.
I work a few hours some days, seldom more than four in a row. Then I go home and breastfeed, and then return to work some more. I get paid by the hour doing this. I work outside the home, doing social work, but am never far from home. If my child should need me I can be home quickly if I can just wrap things up where I'm at. My partner just needs to call.

When parents share alike like we do there is a Jämställdhetsbonus (equality benefit) that is paid as a tax reduction the following year. You become eligible for this reduction when either partner has used hos or her 60 days. So the equality bonus only applies if you share more alike that the system requiers.

The child also gets money, 1050 SEK a month (135,33 USD) just for existing. This money is paid to one of us as long as we share custody of the child, but when I get it I give 525 SEK to my partner.

So. This post had a lot of numbers in it, and I don't know if it makes any sense. But everyone is welcome with questions about this post or questions I can use for inspiring other posts.

3 kommentarer:

  1. I was really glad to read this because I've often wondered about how other countries handle maternity leave. In the U.S. we have horrible benefits, but some women might have it better than others, depending on their profession.

    We took a huge hit for me to stay home for twelve weeks. I am a teacher and I did not even get six weeks of paid leave. I had to use all of my sick leave and personal leave days, and then take a pay cut for the rest. Post six weeks was all docked pay - lovely!

    I've always heard that Sweden had good maternity leave benefits. I did not know about the timesharing with your partner, however. It sounds like you can take a good amount of time, if needed or wanted? We are legally aloud 12 weeks because of the family leave act, but are not guaranteed any pay.

    Whatever. So annoying.

    I think we had our babies around the same time... my Lucia was born on March 9, 2009. I found you on twitter #breastfeeding. I hope you don't think I am too crazy finding you and reading your blog :)

    SvaraRadera
  2. The blog is there for you forigners to read ;)

    Yes, I've heard a lot about the american system but it's always great to hear from someone who has been there.

    My baby was born on march 10:th but I was i labour from 6 pm march the 8 som we must have been i labour at the same time. :D

    Since english is not my first language I have to ask exactly what part of the timesharing you didn't know about? You only have maternity leave? No parent-, partner- och paternity-leave?

    SvaraRadera
  3. I love your system, especially the "equality tax bonus"!

    We will also share our parental leave, but not quite in the way you do. My husband stayed at home right after our son was born for 3 weeks on vacation and then went back to half-time work for two more weeks. Since then, he is working full time. When our boy will be 10 months old, he will go into full-time parental leave and I will go back to work for 6 months. 14 of these months are paid in Germany, you get about 2/3 of your previous net income. Afterwards, we will both share our parental time and work half-time. Glad to hear that other parents do this, too - here it is very rare to have a stay-at-home dad, even when it's "only" part-time.

    SvaraRadera