Policy Hub
On 29 November 2007, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report (Babies and bosses: reconciling work and family life: a synthesis of findings for OECD countries) which finds that getting family-friendly policies right will help reduce poverty, promote child development, enhance equity between men and women and stem the fall in birth-rates. It compares the different approaches that the 30 OECD countries take to help parents balance their work and family commitments.
The Babies and Bosses reviews of work and family reconciliation analysed policies and family outcomes in Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands (2002); Austria, Ireland and Japan (2003); New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland (2004); and Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom (2005). This report, the last in the series, synthesises these findings and extends the scope to include other OECD countries. Based on OECD-wide indicators, it examines tax/benefit policies, parental leave systems, child and out-of-school-hours care support, and workplace practices that help determine parental labour market outcomes and family formation across the OECD.