Policy reform and fathers’ use of parental leave in Germany: The role of education and workplace characteristics

The introduction of the parental leave benefit scheme in 2007 is widely regarded as a landmark reform that has shifted the German welfare state toward a model that is more supportive to the compatibility of work and family life. In this paper, we investigate whether and how this reform has affected men’s use of parental leave based on data from the German microcensus 1999-2012. We find that parental leave usage has increased across all educational levels, but the shift has been strongest for university-educated fathers. Public sector employment is beneficial for men’s uptake of leave, while self-employment and temporary work lowers fathers’ chances of taking leave. The parental leave reform has not affected these associations much