Russian women are on maternity leave longer than all women in the world. This was stated by the head of the laboratory of quantitative research methods of the PRUE named after G. V. Plekhanova Elena Egorova, RIA Novosti reports.
“In most developed countries, with the exception of the Scandinavian and former socialist bloc countries, by our standards, vacations are rather short - 3-4 months, and are not always paid. Women go to work rather quickly - to earn money, to keep their jobs,”the expert clarified.
According to Egorova, Norway is the closest to Russia in terms of maternity leave, where official paid leave lasts 61 weeks. At the same time, in Russia, according to Rosstat, the average duration of a decree is 29 months, and according to the law, a woman has the right to be on parental leave until she is 3 years old.
Egorova also noted that in Russia, women on maternity leave are guaranteed the preservation of their jobs and payments from the Social Insurance Fund. At the same time, Russian women can receive full wages only in the first 20-28 weeks of vacation, while in Norway it is paid to women throughout the entire period of maternity leave.
The expert also noted that, for example, in the United States, women on parental leave are not guaranteed to retain their jobs, and the leave itself is unpaid and lasts 12 weeks. In Canada, maternity leave is 17 weeks, plus 35 weeks of parental leave, in the UK it is 6 and 33 weeks, respectively.
On September 20 last year, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection Alexei Vovchenko said that among Russian fathers, only 2-2.5 percent go on parental leave. He added that in Russia, men and women have the same rights to a child.
In March, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets noted that Russian women earn on average 30 percent less than men. According to her, Russian women have many opportunities, but do not achieve the same level of education, career growth and income as men.