How to pay maternity leave in Belarus? Maternity Benefit

The global economic crisis is forcing many governments to patch holes in the state budget and seek funds for its replenishment. Unfortunately, this process primarily affects the purse of ordinary citizens. This problem was not avoided by the Republic of Belarus. There is already introduced a tax on parasitism, increased tariffs for utilities. And now the question on the agenda is whether the maternity leave in Belarus will be reduced.

Of course, this news caused a stormy reaction among both parents and economists, because about 100,000 2-year-old children will have to be provided with nurseries and tutors, which are currently sorely lacking. How real is this initiative and what will bring to citizens the reduction of maternity leave in Belarus?

Maternity leave in Europe

The Republic of Belarus is one of the few countries providing maternity leave with a duration of 3 years. It is the same duration in Ukraine. But in neighboring Russia, mothers go to work after 1.5 years, more precisely, they can and after 3, but they will receive benefits only the first year and a half. These payments are calculated on the basis of the salary for 2 years preceding the decree, so if a woman has only worked a year, she will receive the allowance at the minimum rate.

But in other European countries, the conditions for decrees are more favorable. Here it is often possible to meet a huge by our standards payment of 25,000 euros, such as in Iceland. Another demographic paradise is Sweden, there is a vacation even if half a year, but the mother will receive 80-100% of her salary.

A woman in Lithuania herself chooses how to conduct a decree - 1 year and get 90% of her salary, or 2 years and get 70% of salary in the first year, 40% - in the second.

In the Soviet Union, and did not have such privileges, after the birth of a child to work out almost immediately or take a decree, but at their own expense. And only after 1981 the duration of the decree was increased to 1 year.

Decree in Belarus today

According to international studies, Belarus ranks 33 out of 160 in the list of countries for the most favorable conditions for maternity, while in the CIS it still stands first. Decent leave in Belarus consists of two parts:

• Maternity leave, which occurs from 30 weeks of pregnancy (from 28 in the zone of the Chernobyl NPP) and lasts 126 and 146 days, respectively;
• Leave to care for a child until he reaches the age of three.

Allowance in Belarus

Payments for maternity leave in Belarus are made 4 times:

• The first payment, which is paid on the basis of the actual salary for 6 months, in other words, the average salary per day, multiplied by 126 or 146 days.
• The second payment is for the birth of a child. The first - 10 budgets of the subsistence minimum, the second and subsequent - 14.
• The third payment is one subsistence minimum budget for timely registration in a female consultation (up to 12 weeks) and regular monitoring by a doctor.
• The fourth payment is a monthly allowance, paid on a general basis, regardless of wages to the decree. It is 35% of the average salary in the country for 1 child, 2 or more - 40%, for a disabled child - 45%.

If we talk in figures, then in 2016 maternity leave in Belarus is paid monthly - 2 450 500 for one child, 2 800 500 for two or more, 3 150 600 for a disabled child. The lump sum is 15,913,100 for the first child, 22,278,340 for the second and subsequent. Plus, the registration fee is 1 591 310.

Also in Belarus, there is a monetary compensation for the birth of twins, it is 2 budget of the subsistence minimum for 2016, or 3 182 620.

Decreasing the decree - the opinion "for"

In the press, more than once the information was sounded that in Belarus they want to reduce maternity leave. In January 2016, presidential aide Kirill Rudyi initiated an initiative to reduce the term of maternity leave in Belarus to 2 years, arguing that in the current economic conditions this step will help increase GDP growth by 2.3%.

The second "pros" is the reduction of discrimination against women, which at the moment is very important in the labor market. Employers are frightened by the length of the decree, during which a woman may lose her professional skills, so women of childbearing age are reluctant to hire women. This adversely affects the amount of labor, creates an obstacle to career and professional growth, causes low wages for women.

Antonina Morozova, a former Minister of Labor and Social Protection, expressed another opinion, arguing that recent work on maternity leave has often occurred. Belarus is the only country that provides such a long hospital for the care of a child, but in reality more than 70% of women do not use it completely.

Reducing the decree - the opinion "against"

The information that in Belarus will reduce maternity leave has provoked a strong reaction both among young parents and among economic analysts.

According to psychologists, the child begins to form for the first three years, so it's best if he spends this time with his mother, not in the kindergarten. In addition, the first interaction with peers is often accompanied by frequent colds. Therefore, my mother will still have to sit with the baby, only on the sick-list, and on the health of the child in the future it can be extremely negative.

Are there any places in the gardens?

Analysts believe that it is impossible to reduce maternity leave in Belarus, since at the moment, even with a three-year decree, there is an acute shortage of places in nursery and preschool groups, especially in large cities such as Minsk and Gomel. Reduction of parental leave should be accompanied by the creation of a large number of nurseries and kindergartens, as well as staffing them with highly qualified nannies and educators.

And what about unemployment?

Another minus reduction in the decree is the high level of unemployment to date. Exiting the mother's decree, if there is no place left for her, it will be almost impossible to find a new job, especially considering that the first year of the garden she will have regular hospital for the child. Therefore, three years of the decree are optimal for 2 years to raise the child on their own, and then to give it to the nursery and the year of adaptation is not carried out at work, but at home on maternity leave.

What in the end?

The situation is clearly ambiguous. On the one hand, the global financial crisis forces us to look for effective solutions to optimize the budget and find funding. To do it differently than to reconsider social policies and payments is almost impossible. Therefore, in crisis conditions, first of all the wallet of ordinary citizens suffers.

The second point is discrimination against young women of childbearing age in the labor market, who are reluctant to hire because of the high duration of maternity leave, during which time it is necessary to keep this worker a place. In addition, for such a long period, some professional skills may be lost, which will have to catch up later, and this is absolutely unprofitable for the employer.

The other side of the problem shows that at the moment the infrastructure of pre-school institutions is not sufficiently developed in the country to provide them with more than 10 thousand children throughout the country. This means that more funds will be needed to create them than those that the state budget will receive if the maternity leave in Belarus is reduced.

As for the work, the woman will still have to take the sick leave for the child until it passes the full adaptation in the kindergarten. However, this can cause irreparable harm to the baby in the future, and it is unlikely that the employer will like to pay sick mothers regularly.

To date, this initiative is only being considered, and, according to the head of the gender policy department, in 2016 will not be realized yet.