Analysts: Support for families should not only be about increasing benefits

Analysts: Support for families should not only be about increasing benefits

The introduction of new social benefits for working mothers could help to increase the quality of their lives, however, it does not solve the problem of women's discrimination on the labour market or the salary gap, wrote the TASR press agency, citing analysts in this field. This was their reaction to the proposal of the Labour Ministry to introduce a new pregnancy benefit, as well as scholarships for pregnant students.

"Introducing pregnancy benefit is a guide to political economy textbooks on how to break all the principles of responsible management in order to gain voters. The benefit was introduced without an analysis of the current situation at the time of a 10-billion public administration deficit, "thinks Radovan Ďurana, an analyst at the Institute of Economic and Social Studies.

Michal Páleník of the Employment Institute perceives the positives of the pregnancy benefit, however, he misses further solutions for supporting families. "By changing the system of PHD studies from employment to study, female PHD students have been left out of maternity coverage. These scholarships could fix this. Of course, family support is a very broad area, not just financial. There is a lack of kindergartens and, unfortunately, already of primary schools, too" thinks Páleník.

"A recent survey in the European Union has shown that the labor market situation of working mothers is at its worst in those countries where post-birth benefits are relatively high, with long maternity leave and where the state fails to provide sufficient institutional childcare," said Magdalena Adamus of the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Mojmir Prochazka, Photo: TASR

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