Why mothers (don't) go to work after giving birth
In the following text, we concentrate on the part of the study that was written by the University of Neuchâtel and focusses on two central family policy issues: Women's career breaks after the birth of a child and the reasons why mothers return to work - and why not.
After the birth of a child, women in Switzerland take an average career break of 9.2 years.
While many foreign studies have focussed on the effects of career breaks on salary, no data is yet available for Switzerland in this context. The study presented here closes this gap. For the women concerned, a maternity-related career break is accompanied by a slower increase in salary and professional experience.
The duration of career breaks in Switzerland is considerable: women who interrupt their careers do so for an average of 9.2 years - the average interruption for people with a university degree is 6.7 years; for women with no education it is 12.1 years. Women with tertiary education interrupt their careers less frequently (38 per cent compared to an average of 50 per cent of all women).
The length of the interruption depends, among other things, on the number of children. For example, mothers with one child return to work on average 4.9 years after leaving the labour market.
Women lose half a million, the economy 800 million francs
Paradoxically, wage losses seem to mainly affect women who have a university degree. For female university graduates, the wage loss amounts to 3.2 per cent per year of interruption or 21.7 per cent for the entire duration of the interruption.
Assuming a 25-year career, this corresponds to around half a million francs. From an economic point of view, the loss of production and income is estimated at 800 million francs per year. This loss could be largely avoided by improving childcare options outside the family.
Costs and availability of daycare centres
A central aim of this study was to measure the relationship between the cost of childcare and the availability of childcare places and the employment of mothers in Switzerland. The study found a significant correlation between the availability of childcare places and the labour force participation rate of mothers. In short: a policy that promotes families' access to childcare places enables mothers of pre-school children to increase their labour force participation rate.
In terms of childcare provision, a 10 per cent increase in available places leads to a 6 per cent increase in hours worked by mothers. A 30 per cent increase in the supply of childcare places would enable mothers of pre-school children to achieve an average employment rate of just over 70 per cent. This is an important result, as an average employment rate of 70 per cent over the entire career would significantly reduce the risk of poverty in retirement .
Why the state even makes a profit with childcare
The increase in the supply of childcare places - without any tariff adjustments for families - was also analysed. A 30 per cent increase in childcare places (plus 18,000 places in daycare centres) would lead to annual operating costs of around CHF 500 million, a third of which (CHF 166 million) would be borne by the public sector. However, the tax revenue that could be generated by the increase in mothers' professional activity (around 250 million) would exceed public spending. In short, the state would actually make a profit on this investment.
Information on the Pro Familia Switzerland study
The study was conducted by Pro Familia Switzerland - in collaboration with the Universities of Neuchâtel and Fribourg - and with the participation of the Fédération des Entreprises Romandes Genève FER, Avenir Suisse, the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions, ARTIAS and the Swiss Management Organisation SKO. This study represents a clear added value for the family policy literature by providing previously unavailable data and an interdisciplinary (primarily social and economic) perspective on this specialised field. The study is only available in French and can be downloaded free of charge from the Pro Familia Switzerland website: www.profamilia.ch/publikationen.html
