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Parental leave continues to grow in popularity and has even surpassed the 2020 peak in 2023. This was evident from data from the National Employment Office (RVA) on Monday.
Source: BELGA
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Last year, an average of 93,876 people took parental leave every month. Compared to 2022, when the NEO paid out an average of 86,310 monthly interruption allowances for parental leave, this is an increase of almost 9 percent. At the time, it was the second highest figure ever, after 2020.
During the first year of the corona pandemic, the federal government temporarily introduced so-called corona leave, an additional form of parental leave for working parents with young children who sometimes had to rely on homeschooling. It increased interruption benefits for parental leave from an average of 68,688 per month in 2019 to 90,339 in 2020.
Since the corona pandemic, the system has become more and more established and parental leave benefits are on the rise. More men in particular have started to take parental leave. To illustrate: in the last quarter of 2023, the number of benefits for men increased by 12.6 percent on an annual basis, compared to 7.7 percent for women. In absolute figures, almost twice as many women as men continue to take parental leave.
Parents are entitled to a maximum of 4 months of parental leave for each child up to the age of 12. They will then receive a replacement income from the NEO. The majority of people who take parental leave choose to work four-fifths.