Parents should have the option of flexible leave to take care of their children, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) and others said on Tuesday as they proposed an amendment on the issue.
The lawmakers proposed the changes to simultaneously tackle the declining birthrate and the worsening labor shortage.
Forty-nine percent of working-age women are not in the workforce, as many stay at home to take care of children, Childcare Policy Alliance convener Liu Yu-shiu (劉毓秀) said.
Single women work at a higher rate than their male counterparts, but many find it difficult to return to work after time away caring for children, Hung said.
Under the proposed amendment, parents would be able to use parental leave until their child is eight years old, and could apply for leave by the day or by the hour. The alliance also proposed an amendment on parental leave in 2022.
The government under president-elect William Lai (賴清德) must move quickly on the issue and reforms must be aggressive to solve the country’s labor force and population problems. On Jan. 27, St Lawrence University professor Grace C. Huang asked in the Taipei Times: “Can Lai solve the low birthrate?” She wrote that Taiwan’s total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime — ranges from 0.87 to 1.2 depending on the study. A TFR of 2.1 is needed for a country to maintain its population.
Japan, which also has a low TFR, on Nov. 13 proposed increasing childcare leave allowances to cover 100 percent of household income in two-parent households, as long as both parents each take 14 days of leave or more.
The reasons for couples putting off having children have been widely reported, but largely come down to financial issues. Couples need suitable housing to raise children, but it is unaffordable and wages are too low. Both prospective parents must work to pay for housing, but then daycare is needed. There is insufficient public daycare, so couples must rely on private daycare, but that is often unaffordable.
The government has a track record of making incremental changes to tackle huge problems and therefore fails to solve issues in a timely manner. If the government wants to get serious about tackling the labor shortage and the declining birthrate, then it must become more aggressive in offering financial incentives and other solutions. It must get serious about offering affordable housing to married couples.
With housing out of the way, the government should improve the availability of public daycare and kindergarten services, and in the interim could subsidize employers and mandate up to two years of parental leave for parents paid at 80 percent of their combined salary. It should also offer flexible leave for parents to deal with unexpected contingencies.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co said that children born to its employees accounted for 1.8 percent of the nation’s births last year. The government should look at what contributed to those results and reproduce them on a national scale. If it is better salaries or in-company daycare, the government could offer tax breaks or subsidies to companies that follow suit.
The declining birthrate is a major problem that needs major solutions — and fast.
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