Beijing moms now get an extra month of maternity leave! But there’s a catch…

*The additional 30 days of maternity leave only applies when you have your third child.

For the first two children, mothers are still only eligible for up to 4 months maternity leave, while fathers continue to get 15 days of paternity leave.

Earlier this year China announced the end of the two-child policy after the 2020 census revealed that the country’s population has been growing at its slowest pace in decades. Congratulations! Chinese families are now allowed to have three children! But wait, are people really taking the bait?

As the cost of living, education, healthcare, etc. continues to rise in the city, it’s not a matter of whether parents want a third child, but if they can actually afford to have one.

In response to these concerns, Beijing’s health authorities announced earlier this month that any mother who gives birth to a third child would be entitled to an additional 30 days of maternity leave, on top of the 4 months of maternity leave under previous policy. Spouses are still only eligible for up to 15 days of paternity leave.

However, such incentives are nothing new, and have yet to prove effective in swaying the populace to have more kids. In fact, ever since the three-child policy was announced, it’s been met with equal parts criticism and skepticism, forcing the country to continually find ways to ease the burden of parenthood, such as the increased maternity leave. Furthermore, according to Global Times, Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces have already started providing couples who have a third child with subsidies.

Would an additional month of maternity leave encourage you to have more kids? If not, what incentives would? Tell us in the comments below!

KEEP READING: What You Should Know About Your Legal Rights Before Your Maternity Leave

Images: Pexels

On Thursday, March 24, Beijing People’s Congress revised its regulation on family planning and announced the following:

• Mothers are now entitled to a total of 128 days maternity leave—a 30 day increase from before.  Depending on the organization, the maternity leave can be further extended by one to three months.
• Existing mothers birthing their second child can have up to 218 days maternity leave (a 1-3 month extension) with their employer’s consent
• Fathers are entitled to a 15-day paternity leave
• Re-married couples with one child from each of their marriages are allowed to have another child (so three in total)
• Parents of a child with disabilities are now allowed to have a third child

Note: Municipalities differ in benefits offered, meaning these announcements only affect Beijingers (a Chinese citizen would have to be registered in Beijing).  Guangdong has 128 days of maternity leave, 15 days paternity leave.  Shanghai offers 128 days of maternity leave, 10 days paternity leave. Shandong offers 60 days of maternity leave. Shenzhen offers 10 days paternity leave.

The recently passed law was drafted only after having collected more than 4,100 suggestions from the public, and reflects the needs and desires of local residents.

If these announcements are baffling to you, let’s look at how China has improved its family planning policies in recent years:

• 2015 – China ended one-child policy (in place since 1979) with the introduction of a two-child policy
• 2013 – China announced a conditional two-child policy where if one parent is a single child, then a couple can have two children
• 2012 – National maternity leave extended from 90 to 98 days

If you’re expecting, or just curious of your benefits, you might be interested in knowing the details of your maternity leave benefits:

• You are entitled to it only after one (1) year of employment
• You can start your maternity leave 15 days prior to birth (no earlier)
• You can extend your maternity leave by at least 15 days (by law) if there are complications or if you’re birthing more than one child, in which case you are entitled to an additional 15 days per child born (triplets = 30 days extra)
• Your  128-day maternity leave does not exclude weekends, federal or national holidays
• If you are registered with the Social Security Bureau (SSB), then instead of a salary, you would be paid a maternity allowance, and would be an average of either your salary from the past 12 months, or an average of all employee salaries from the past 12 months—whichever is higher.  It gets complicated when we look at Tier-1 cities, such as Beijing, since the SSB will not pay more than three times the local average salary (2013 Beijing average salary was RMB 5,793×3=17,379), requiring the employer to cover the difference.
• If you are not registered with the SSB, then your employer will continue to pay your salary while you are on maternity leave.
• You cannot be terminated while pregnant or on maternity leave—it’s illegal!
• If you’re on a fixed-term contract and become pregnant, your contract will automatically be extended.

In addition to the maternity leave, upon returning to the office, mothers are entitled to “breast-feeding leave”, which encourages working mothers to nurse their children for at least a year.  This means:

• Mothers are allowed 1-hour of nursing/pumping break per day
• Companies will often encourage mothers to put the hour towards their vacations and have mothers work full, eight-hour days instead.

Finally, there is also a leave in place for women who have an abortion or a miscarriage:

• 15+ days of maternity leave if the pregnancy lasted less than four months
• 42+ days of maternity leave if the pregnancy lasted longer than four months

Source: The Nanfang, China Daily, China Briefing, CRI

Photo: Pixabay

The State Council of Legislative Affairs is considering tweaking China’s official maternity leave policy and is currently soliciting input from the public, according to a report on msn.com’s Chinese-language news site.

Under the proposal, which would replace the current policy that was effected in 1988, the number of maternity leave days would be increased from "90 days to 14 weeks" (98 days). Other stipulations include two additional weeks off for "difficult births," and two extra weeks off for each baby if you have multiple babies. Women who suffer miscarriages (or undergo abortions) in their first four months of pregnancy can also get a minimum of two paid weeks off and after four months, it goes up to six full paid weeks.

But what remains unclear is how this new policy would affect mothers over the age of 24 who currently receive an additional 18 days leave for their "advanced age" – if these moms (which are probably now in the majority) are still allowed the additional days under this system, then it’s all well and good, but if not then they actually stand to lose some valuable time off. Moreover the rules would not apply to mothers who violate China’s one-child policy (never mind that their babies would have already been born) and there’s no indication of any leave allotted to new dads – which seems hardly fair in my biased opinion.

Even with the additional time off, China’s maternity leave policy still seems rather paltry compared with many other countries. The former Eastern Bloc countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, for example, allow new mothers between two to four years off (with full pay!). Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway are also known for their generous parental leave policies – up to 16 and 13 months at full pay, respectively, not to mention 12 mandatory weeks of paid paternity leave in the case of Norway (compare that with the five working days I was given my company when our daughter was born).

Of course not every country is that generous and judging from this Wikipedia post, Asian countries in general seem to short shrift their moms in allotted days off, especially when compared to Europe.

But don’t feel too bad: even the worst examples on the list aren’t as bad as my home country of the US, which is one of only five countries in the world that doesn’t even require employers to provide some form of paid maternity leave and consistently ranks among the as one of the worst industrialized nations to live in for mothers.

From now until December 23rd, the general public is being invited to offer their suggestions on this proposal. Click here if you can read Chinese and want to give the government your two cents.