Work-Life Balance

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Latvia, some 2% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Latvia, full-time workers devote 58% of their day on average, or 13.8 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In South Africa, some 18% of employees work very long hours, more than the OECD average of 13%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In South Africa, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.7 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Australia, 13% of employees work very long hours, in line with the OECD average.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as personal care or leisure. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Australia, full-time workers devote 60% of their day on average, or 14.4 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Austria, 7% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Austria, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Better childcare

Affordable high quality childcare helps families balance work-family obligations. Austria has created a budget of EUR 440 million for 2014-17 to increase the quality of childcare and meet the European Union Barcelona enrolment rate targets. Early results include an increase of the enrolment rate of children up to age 3 by 25% and the target for children aged 3 to 6 years old has already been achieved. Länder and municipalities subsidise the operating expenses of public and private childcare providers. Several Länder help families by offering free full-time childcare while others adjust fees to the income level of parents. A pilot project in 70 locations has also put value on improving the quality of education for young children by integrating the curriculum across the last kindergarten year and the first two years of primary school. This project is being expanded to the entire country over 2016/17.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Belgium, 5% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Belgium, full-time workers devote 66% of their day on average, or 15.8 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Challenging conventional ways of working

The Belgian FPS Social Security has created a dynamic workplace where new ways of working have been implemented to promote practices such as desk sharing, home working, increased focus on results and more flexible ways in which teams are structured and work. The aim is to find talented people, to retain the right people and to make workers happy. The organisation lets people be in charge of their own life; it does not matter anymore when, where and how they work. Only results are important and evaluated.

This saves the federal government EUR 6 million each year and has resulted in a 30% reduction in office space, a 55% reduction in the use of paper for printing, and a 60% reduction in office furniture expenditure. The FPS has been announced to be the best employer in the Belgian federal administration.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Brazil, close to 10% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Canada, almost 4% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Canada, full-time workers devote 60% of their day on average, or 14.4 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Full-day kindergarten

Ontario, Canada has invested heavily in providing early childhood education on a province wide basis by establishing full day kindergarten for four and five year old children. In September 2010, Ontario began phasing in the Full-Day Kindergarten Programme, with full implementation in all schools by September 2015. The schools day runs from 9:00 am-3:00 pm and each school is also encouraged to offer before and after school programming (e.g. childcare) on site outside of these hours, with the goal of creating a seamless day for children and parents. Four- and five-year-olds will learn under the guidance of a teacher and an early childhood educator. This will make it easier for parents to get to and from work and will ensure their children have an integrated learning programme for the whole day.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Chile, however, almost 14% of employees work very long hours, more than the OECD average of 13%. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Quality childcare

The Chilean government has expanded high quality childcare to increase female workforce participation. Between 2014 and 2018 the government will build more than 3 000 new childcare centres and will continue expanding existing establishments. Chile's plans to create new spaces for day care and middle level nursery schools over the next four years would bring Chile to the OECD average. The government's plan to create 534 nurseries is a promising step toward reaching this goal. The new nurseries will give more than 10 000 children aged 0-2 access early childcare and education.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In the Czech Republic, 6% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Denmark, 2% of employees work very long hours, one of the lowest rates in the OECD where the average is 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Denmark, full-time workers devote 66% of their day on average, or 15.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Flexible jobs

Danish Flexjobs were introduced to accommodate employees that work at a different pace or need shorter hours. Under these agreements employers pay their workers based on the effective work done. Depending on their wage level workers may also qualify for an additional supplement. Flexjob agreements are granted for a period of five years and then eligibility is reassessed. At this point municipalities sometimes grant workers over 40 years old with a permanent place in a Flexjob.

The Aalborg University Hospital uses Flexjob agreements to lessen the workload of older workers. Employees over the age of 58 can reduce their hours while receiving the same pension contributions from their employer. They can also request special job appraisals, fixed hours, and apply to be relieved of weekend and extra holiday work. Older workers with chronic diseases can request lighter duty. The hospital has also set up a welfare team to improve physical and mental conditions at work, prevent absenteeism due to sickness or exclusion, and avoid occupational injuries.

A continuum of supports for families with children

Policy in Denmark provides extensive financial support to families with young children: public spending on family benefits amounts to just over 4% of GDP, compared to 2.6% on average across the OECD, and close to 60% of such spending is on family services including childcare. Furthermore, Danish policy aims to provide a continuum of supports to families with young children: around childbirth there is 18 weeks of paid maternity leave and 2 weeks of paid paternity leave, followed by 32 weeks of paid parental leave. There is an entitlement to a formal childcare place as from when the child is 6 months old; at 67% participation in formal childcare by children not yet 3 years of age is highest across the OECD. There is pre-school support from age 3 onwards, and upon entering primary school, out-of-school-hours care becomes widely available and such facilities are attended by almost 90% of Danish children aged 6 to 8.

This extensive system of supports for families with children as well as family-friendly workplace practices – e.g. the standard working week is relatively short at 37 hours, gives many Danes the feeling that work and family life are compatible, and the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has held up around 1.7-1.8 children per women in recent years, with female employment rates among prime-age workers (78% for those 25-54) among the highest in the OECD. Widespread employment participation contributes to low child poverty rates (at 2.7%) and indicators on life satisfaction, not surprisingly suggest that Danes are quite happy with their lot.

Denmark is also doing well in terms of gender equality in labour market outcomes: gender employment gaps and gender pay gaps are among the lowest in the OECD. However, despite policy discussions Denmark has not yet introduced reform that stimulates a more equal sharing of the parental leave entitlement, which is currently usually used by mothers. Iceland has a father quota in parental leave which reserves three months of paid parental leave for fathers on a "use it or lose it" basis, or the use of bonus moths as in Germany can help increase take-up among fathers, and perhaps in future generate an even more equal gender distribution of paid and unpaid work in Denmark.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Estonia, about 3% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Estonia, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Finland, almost 4% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Finland, full-time workers devote 63% of their day on average, or 15.2 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In France, around 8% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In France full-time workers devote 68% of their day on average, or 16.4 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Greater gender equality can be achieved in France

France performs well in a number of important dimensions of work-life balance: fertility is above the OECD average; the employment rate of women aged 25 to 54 is above the OECD average, and 78% of them work full-time; and despite a recent slight increase, at 10.8% the child poverty rate regarding children aged from 0 to 17 remains below the OECD average (13.9%). These positive outcomes go hand-in-hand with high investment in family policies across the different stages of childhood.

Despite these positive outcomes, access to the labour market of mothers of young or large families could be improved but would likely require a more equal share of caring activities between parents. A greater involvement of fathers in care activities after childbirth is likely to facilitate the return to work of mothers. Fathers are entitled to paid paternity leave for two weeks (11 working days). In addition, parents of two or more children can leave employment or reduce working time after childbirth and receive a flat-rate childcare benefit for up to three years. Since July 2014, one parent (usually the mother) can claim this payment for two and half years while the other parent (usually the father) can take the remaining 6 months. This reform was introduced to encourage fathers to take more parental leave and get more involved in the care of children. However, at the same time this payment encourages young mothers with limited working hours and earnings to stop working for a prolonged period which is likely to negatively affect their future employment prospects.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.  The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Germany, 5% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Germany, full-time workers devote 65% of their day on average, or 15.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Addressing gender inequalities can help families grow

In 2013, only eight countries in the OECD had fewer babies per woman than Germany. With a fertility rate of 1.41, compared to 1.7 on average in the OECD, Germany's fertility rate has been below 1.5 children per woman since 1983.

In Germany, women often postpone having children, and they are 30 years old on average when they have their first child (a record high they share with women in the United Kingdom). Women with high levels of educational attainment in Germany are most likely to postpone childbirth. Postponement increases the likelihood of not having children at all and childlessness in Germany is high: In 2013 over 28% of German women aged 40 to 44 live in childless households (compared with an OECD average of 21.6%). Otherwise families are small: around half (52%) of all German families with children are one-child families compared with 45.3% on average across the OECD.

At 13.4% of median earnings, gender pay gaps are above the OECD average (17.9%) in 2013. Mothers spend twice as much time on care than men (over 20% against less than 10%). For German "work/family life policy" to become more effective a number of serious barriers to female labour market participation need to be addressed, including extending formal childcare capacity, which is being undertaken with recent reform. Germany is the only OECD country where the tax/benefit system makes it financially more attractive at a given income level to have one rather than two earners in a couple-family: the tax/benefit system should become more neutral in this regard.

Germany has taken steps to increase fathers' participation in child-rearing which will help more women engage in the labour market. The OECD commends Germany for the recent parental leave reform which now is among the most generous of OECD systems in terms of child-related leave entitlements for the exclusive use by fathers.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Greece, some 6% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Hungary, almost 4% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

More support to families can boost fertility in Hungary

At 1.34 children per woman, the total fertility rate in Hungary is one of the lowest across the OECD (the average is 1.71). The decline in fertility started in the 1980s, and accelerated in the early 1990s. Since 2000, fertility rates stabilised in Hungary, while about half of the other OECD countries experienced an increase. Low fertility goes hand in hand with low employment among women. In 2013, the female employment rate was 52.8% (about 5 percentage points below the OECD average), and at 51.7% in 2011 the maternal employment rate was among the lowest in European OECD countries.

Low fertility and female employment rates are largely explained by insufficient support for parents to reconcile work and care commitments. Hungary is among the top OECD spenders on families with 4% of GDP allocated to family benefits in 2011. However, only 1/3 of such spending is on family services (including childcare supports) while this share is closer to 50% in countries with higher female employment and fertility rates.

The prolonged duration of parental leave and the limited provision of childcare supports establish barriers to employment for many mothers. Parental leave can last up to 3 years (compared with 1.5 years on average across the OECD) and be combined with a cash-for-care payment; a parent of three or more children can even stay at home and receive this benefit until the youngest child is eight years old. Moreover, less than 11% of children under age 3 are enrolled in formal childcare services.

The evidence from other countries is that a wider provision of formal childcare services is a more effective tool for helping parents with work and family commitments and thus raise birth rates.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Iceland, the share of employees work very long hours is close to the OECD average of 13%.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Ireland, some 4% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Israel, almost 15% of employees work very long hours, more than the OECD average of 13%. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Italy, some 4% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Italy, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours.

Better Policies for Better Lives

Improving work-life balance through free childcare

The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance provides a free care and entertainment service aimed at children of its employees from 4 to 12 years old. The services are located at the Ministry Headquarters in Rome and in nearby external sports facilities during summer. It is operational on weekdays when there is no school. In the morning before starting work, employees can leave their children in care and collect them at lunch time. If their working hours involve an afternoon, they can also leave them after lunch and collect them in the evening. The care activities are managed by qualified childcare staff.

This improves work-life balance, with 76% of users valuing the experience of the service by their sons and daughters as "excellent" and 21% as "good". Also the work attendance rate of employees who use the service is on average higher than that of other employees with children of the same age. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life. In Japan, the share of employees working very long hours is more than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Japan, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or nearly 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours.

Better Policies for Better Lives

Japan has fewer babies and lower female employment

Parents in Japan find it difficult to combine work and family commitments. Workplace practices, private costs (housing and juku), and social norms put pressure on young people. Hence, young Japanese postpone marriage, delay parenthood and often have fewer children than intended.

Japan is among the "lowest-low" fertility countries with a fertility rate of 1.42 in 2014. There has been a small rebound since 2005, but nevertheless the population has started to decline.

Japanese social policy has introduced several measures to reduce barriers to both parenting and employment. However, despite these efforts, policies such as childcare can be further developed. Increasing childcare provision and reducing private costs of out-of-school services are both crucial for parental employment. Japanese public spending on childcare and preschool services is the fourth lowest among OECD countries. Childcare constraints persist and enrolment rates for children under 3 (at 30.4%), although increasing, are still below the OECD average (33%).

Japanese workplace practices make it difficult for parents to combine work and family life. After the high cost of education, many educated Japanese women first want to establish regular employment before having children. Furthermore, once Japanese women leave the labour force to care for children, they often end up in non-regular employment, which is often low paid, part-time, and temporary. Parents who wish to get back to work need to have better opportunities to re-enter regular employment, otherwise, those who can afford to stay at home do so rather than return to a low-quality job. The result is fewer babies and lower female employment levels than the OECD average, at a time when Japan needs more working women to replace the aging working age population.

Encouraging female labour participation

High quality childcare and childcare leave encourage better work-life balance and labour market participation of women. In 2014, Japan increased childcare leave benefits from 50% to 67% of wages (prior to leave). The number of available and affordable childcare options is also being increased. The number of public childcare places will be increased by 0.5 million by March 2018. After-school childcare centres will provide care for another 0.3 million children by March 2020. The government has also established a new certification system for employers who create an employment environment that is favourable to raising children and encourages better work-life balance. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life. In Korea, the share of employees working very long hours is more than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Korea, full-time workers devote 61% of their day on average, or 14.7 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – close to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Too few babies and too little female employment

At 1.2 children per woman, Korea's total fertility rate in 2013 was among the lowest in the OECD. The decline in the fertility rate is mainly explained by married women having fewer children – families with three or more children have become rare in Korea – and a rise in the number of single women. Simply put, Korean women who are more educated, have jobs, and live in cities are likely to put off marriage and having children.

In addition to the low fertility rate, the female employment rate was also low at 55.1% in 2014, below the OECD average of 57.9%. Korea has the dual challenge of promoting female labour market participation and increasing fertility rates. Korea's workplace practices (long working hours, socialising after work, little leave) make it difficult for parents to combine work and family life. After high private investments in education, many young Koreans first want to establish themselves in the regular employment before having children. However, once Korean women who have left the labour force to care for children, wish to return to work, they often end up in non-regular employment which is often low paid, part-time, and temporary. So if they can afford it, mothers will stay at home rather than return to a low-quality job. The result is too few babies and too little female employment, at a time when Korea needs more women in employment as its working age population is aging.

With female educational attainment levels now surpassing those of men, and with projected declines in the labour force, Korea's economy needs to make a more efficient use of its investment in human capital to keep its economic engine going. Public spending on family benefit, especially on childcare support, has been growing, but its effect on the total fertility rate has so far been limited. At the same time Korea's fathers should do more work at home to facilitate more women to be in employment. In sum, a reduced prevalence of the long-hours culture, a greater role for flexible working-time arrangements, and performance-related pay to workers regardless of sex or household status will help Koreans better reconcile work and family life.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Luxembourg, some 3% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Mexico, however, nearly 28% of employees work very long hours, one of the highest levels in the OECD where the average is 13%. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

More public support to families with children is needed

Mexico could strengthen its policies to enhance the well-being of families and children. Public support in family benefits and services are key for mobilising female employment, reducing poverty risks, promoting child development and improving gender equity.

Apart from Israel and Turkey, Mexico has the highest child poverty rate in the OECD. Almost 1 in 4 Mexican children lived in poor households in 2011 (25.8 %); well above the OECD average of 1 in 8 (13.9 %) children. In the early 2000s, child poverty rates fell noticeably in Mexico, in part due to an expansion of social programmes such as Prospera. This conditional cash transfer programme has come under criticism in recent years for encouraging mothers to assume traditional caregiver roles, as mothers are responsible for ensuring the family's compliance with health and educational regulations, but recent changes to the programme have attempted to promote mothers' participation in paid work.

Child-related leave entitlements are limited. Maternity leave, although paid at 100% of last earnings, lasts just 12 weeks and only covers women in formal employment. Five days of paternity leave was recently introduced and funded by employers. Efforts to increase childcare (Programa de Estancias Infantiles para Madres Trabajadoras) and pre-school enrolment rates (by implementing compulsory pre-school education) have translated into higher participation rates. But more can be done, as childcare enrolment rates among under-3's remain considerably low (8.3% compared with an OECD average of 32.6%), and access to high quality and affordable care is central for facilitating parental employment.

Gender gaps in paid and unpaid work in Mexico are among the largest in the OECD area. Female employment rates, though modestly increasing, are the lowest in the OECD after Turkey and Greece (45.3% of Mexican women are in paid work compared to an OECD average of 57.5 in 2013).

Time poverty and gender roles present significant barriers to women's participation in the labour market. At home, Mexican women spend 4 hours more per day on unpaid care and housework than men. Mexicans also work longer annual hours than workers in all other OECD countries, and have one of the longest average daily commute times in the OECD, after Japan and Korea. These time constraints complicate work-life balance and present significant challenges for mothers, especially as an increasing share of them are sole parents. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In the Netherlands, less than 0.5% of employees work very long hours, the lowest rate in the OECD where the average is 13%. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Dutch families are doing well as mothers take on dual roles

In the Netherlands, family and children policy outcomes are generally good. Employment rates, parental education rates, and fertility rates are higher than OECD averages. In terms of children and youth, the Dutch have very low rates of youth unemployment, high reading literacy levels, below average levels of child income poverty, and high levels of life satisfaction in childhood (over 93% of 11-15 year old children report above average life satisfaction).

Many Dutch families share work responsibilities – the female employment rate is well above the OECD average (69.9% compared to the OECD average of 57.5%), as are maternal employment rates – but more often than not women work part-time. Furthermore, at home Dutch women spend almost 2 hours more per day working than men.

In the past two decades, the rise in female employment in the Netherlands has been rapid: in the early 80's the rate was amongst the lowest in the OECD at around 35%, in 2009 it had doubled to over 70%. However, much of the increase in female employment has been on a part-time basis: over 61% of employed women work part-time. Part-time work is particularly common among employed mothers. This may free up time for family commitments, but often has negative consequences on career progression and underutilises women’s education and skills: young Dutch women are more educated than the OECD average, and more educated than young Dutch men. In the Netherlands, a working mother with two grown up children has, on average, earned less than half of the total working-life earnings of otherwise similar female employees.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. However, in New Zealand, almost 14% of employees work very long hours, slightly more than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In New Zealand, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

High fertility and female employment rates, but challenges for single parents

New Zealand has experienced a steady growth in the female employment rate, which currently stands at 67.9%, well above the OECD average of 57.5%. Rising female employment has been coupled with rising wages for women too; the gender-wage gap, at 4% in 2011, is among the lowest in the OECD, and well below the OECD average around 15%. At 2 children per women, the total fertility rate in 2012 is well above the OECD average of 1.7. High fertility and female employment rates in New Zealand, suggest overall compatibility between work and family life. However, Maori and Pacific ethnic groups combine high fertility rates with much lower female employment rates.

Although the overall spending per child fell between 2003 and 2007, there has been a welcome increase in early-childhood spending and childcare provision. The increase in spending on children aged 0-5 years as a share of spending on all children was one of the largest in the OECD.

Overall, child outcomes in New Zealand are mixed: the child poverty rate, at 13.3%, is the same as the OECD average; infant deaths have fallen while proportion of low-weight births has also decreased. PISA reading scores are above the OECD average. But at 7.7% the proportion of older children (15-19 years old) not in education or employment is higher than the OECD average of 7.1% in 2013.

A good package of policies, including flexible workplace practices and affordable early childhood care and education services, helps New Zealand families to reconcile work and family and female life. Part-time work is a common working practice used by New Zealand mothers who reduce their working hours when their child is young but return to full-time work when the child starts school.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Norway, 3% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Norway, full-time workers devote 65% of their day on average, or 15.6 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Poland, some 7% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Poland, full-time workers devote 60% of their day on average, or 14.4 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Portugal, about 10% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Portuguese families need further childcare support

For over a generation of families, fertility rates in Portugal have been falling. Portugal‘s fertility rate, at 1.28, is the lowest in the OECD, which has important implications for the changing face of future Portuguese society. In fact, the problem is not that families have no children, but rather that Portuguese families often do not have more than one child. Childlessness is low in Portugal, less than one in ten women aged 49+ have no children, but around half of all Portuguese families are one-child families. To improve fertility rates, Portuguese families need more support when caring for young children.

Recent parental leave reform has helped both mothers and fathers to spend more time with their new-borns, as well as promoting gender equity through financial incentives to share parental leave. Childcare enrolment of children not yet 3 years of age in Portugal has increased sharply over the last decade to 45.9% (the OECD average is 32.6%).

Portugal should try to invest more of their public family budget towards early support for children, even in times when budget pressures are at their highest. Investment on child services is essential to enable families to flourish, for future welfare state sustainability and for economic growth. Portugal is already spending less than the OECD average at each stage of childhood. Reported spending on children in their early years is less than half of the OECD average (EUR 16 240 per child compared to EUR30 950) and mid- and late-childhood spending lag behind OECD levels by around one-third and one-fifth respectively.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In the Russian Federation only 0.2% of employees work very long hours, much less than the OECD average of 13%. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In the Slovak Republic, some 6% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Slovenia, nearly 6% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%. 

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Slovenia, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.8 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Spain, almost 6% of employees work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Spain, full-time workers devote 66% of their day on average, or 15.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Spain should strengthen its policies to combine work and family life

Families in Spain find it difficult to combine work and family life; both female employment rates and fertility rates are low in international comparison. At around 1.3 children per woman, fertility rates in Spain have been amongst the lowest in the OECD for the past two decades. Increasingly, women and men first want to establish themselves in the labour market before having children. This has led to a postponement of childbirth and the average age of first childbirth for mothers is now close to 30. Low fertility rates are also related to a fall in the number of large families and a significant proportion of women remaining childless.

Female employment in Spain has risen markedly over recent years, from 32.5% in 1995 to 51% today. However, despite this important increase, female employment in Spain is still below the OECD average (57.5%); and 75% of mothers go back to work only 8 years after childbirth. Governmental efforts in extending coverage and providing support to families to reduce the cost of childcare have led to an important increase in childcare participation. In 2010, 39.3% of children under 3 years old were enrolled in childcare services (the OECD average is 32.6%). However, out-of-school-hours care is limited and many working parents rely on informal providers: about a quarter of grandparents in Spain take care of their grandchildren on a daily basis.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Sweden, about 1% of employees work very long hours, one of the lowest rates in the OECD where the average is 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In Sweden, full-time workers devote 63% of their day on average, or 15.2 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – slightly more than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Easy access to parental benefits

The service 'My Pages' offers Swedish people online information on what types of benefits they are eligible for. The government launched a smartphone application so that parents, instead of filling out papers for temporary parental leave when staying home with their ill child, can apply for those benefits on line.

Now, approximately 43% of all the log-ins to My Pages come through the App. The 1.2 million users now log-in 80% more often than before the application. In addition, 24% of all the applications for temporary parental leave are now done via the App. Finally, the self-service level for temporary parental leave has increased from 62% to 80% from the date when the application was launched. Parents have expressed high customer satisfaction and the App was downloaded more than 200 000 times in the first three months alone.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Switzerland, the share of employees working very long hours is lower than the OECD average of 13%.

Better Policies for Better Lives

Supplying more childcare places

Swiss childcare services are expensive and in short supply. To help working families a temporary programme to increase the number of places in childcare has been extended from 2015 until 2019. A total of 43 000 new childcare places were created between 2003 and 2015.

Three municipalities in the Canton of Lucerne took part in a study that tested a system of vouchers for childcare services. Instead of subsidies paid to the childcare institutions, the families received vouchers that they could spend on childcare services in the area. The main advantages of this voucher system are: i) families have an equal opportunity with respect to the public support of childcare, and ii) parents can choose from a greater range of childcare services.

An evaluation showed that the system was well received by parents as well as by childcare institutions, and there were no major implementation problems. Most importantly, cost-benefit calculations showed that the vouchers are a good investment, assuming families are able to generate additional income. These vouchers should also enhance competition among care providers since parents can choose their childcare centre. The system has been running successfully in all three municipalities, with a doubling of places since it was implemented in 2009.

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In Turkey, however, some 39% of employees work very long hours, by far the highest rate in the OECD where the average is 13%.

Another important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Increasing efficiency and facilitating teleworking

The municipality of Yalova has introduced an integrated electronic document system called ZAMBAK to improve public service efficiency. Under this new system workflows and related documents or projects can be uploaded to digital archives. Work has also become more traceable helping managers better monitor performance measures. This has increased the opportunity for teleworking allowing nearly 70% of public service employees to work remotely when necessary. ZAMBAK has also decreased space dependence making it easier and cheaper for the municipality to manage work spaces. Yalova city is currently sharing lessons learned with other municipalities and employers across Turkey to help increase efficiencies. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.  The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In the United Kingdom, almost 13% of employees work very long hours, in line with the OECD average.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In the United Kingdom, full-time workers devote 62% of their day on average, or 14.9 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – close to the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Affordable childcare

Affordable childcare is essential for parents trying to balancing work and family obligations. The UK has recently introduced several measures aimed at helping families with children on low incomes into employment. The extension of early education centre working hours is a positive step. The government is also investing GBP 350 million to raise the childcare fee subsidy from 70% to 85%. The subsidy is available to low income or out-of-work parents on the Universal Credit benefit from April 2016. 

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• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being

Key Findings

Finding a suitable balance between work and life is a challenge for all workers, especially working parents. The ability to successfully combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the well-being of all members in a household. Governments can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life.

An important aspect of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. Evidence suggests that long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress. The share of employees working 50 hours or more per week is not very large across OECD countries. In the United States, almost 12% of employees work very long hours, slightly less than the OECD average of 13%.

The more people work, the less time they have to spend on other activities, such as time with others, leisure activities, eating or sleeping. The amount and quality of leisure time is important for people's overall well-being, and can bring additional physical and mental health benefits. In the United States, full-time workers devote 60% of their day on average, or 14.5 hours, to personal care (eating, sleeping, etc.) and leisure (socialising with friends and family, hobbies, games, computer and television use, etc.) – less than the OECD average of 15 hours. 

Better Policies for Better Lives

Reducing poverty among working families

OECD analysis suggests that the US could help working families to reduce poverty rates by strengthening services and benefits for children in their early years, including legislating for paid parental leave, and building on the successes of child education and care services, such as the Headstart programme and various state-level programmes.

In the US, total public spending on child welfare and education is USD 160 000 up to the age of 18, above the OECD average of USD 149 000. But the US starts spending relatively late, spending the most money on public compulsory education. This means early investment – including childcare and support for families around the time of birth – could be strengthened.

The US, for example, is the only OECD country without a national paid parental leave policy, although three states do provide leave payments. At the federal level, the available (unpaid) parental leave is short (12 weeks), and only covers some employees (those in companies with 50+ workers). While the implementation of a national paid leave program could entail some indirect costs for employers (e.g. temporarily replacing new parents on the job), it is more likely that such a scheme would be funded by employee contributions, as this is what happens at the state level. The pay-offs to paid leave are significant: there are benefits not only to child well-being but also to the labour market, as evidence suggests that when US mothers can access a leave entitlement, they are more likely to return to work than mothers who do not.

Mothers' return to work is important, as in the US economic stability is strongly linked to employment. A significant proportion of public family support is delivered via tax breaks and credits (45% of total, compared to 10% on average in the OECD). Nevertheless female employment in the US has been falling for the last decade, albeit from high levels. This fall is happening despite US women having better career prospects compared to most other OECD countries (35% of management jobs occupied by women), relatively high levels of education, and lower career costs associated with child-rearing (where mothers earn over 80% of non-mothers' earnings over a working life). The case for paid parental leave – and a new mother's job security – is compelling. 

More Resources

• How's Life? 2015: Measuring Well-being