Response to interpellation 2025/26:469 on an equal parental leave
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns an equal parental leave. M considers the current leave to be generous and promotes equal parenting 1. M emphasizes that increased flexibility facilitates different family constellations 1 2 and that double days improve women's rehabilitation 2. M argues that an equal take-up is economically profitable thanks to the job tax credit 1 3 and that a government with their support guarantees such a credit 4. S argues that the goal of more equal distribution has not been reached 5. S expresses concern that earmarked days are being removed 5. S considers that fathers need time with the children while mothers need economic power 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Mr. Speaker! Sanne Lennström has asked the Minister for Equality what measures she and the government want to take to achieve the goal of an equal parental leave.
The work within the government is distributed in such a way that it is I who shall answer the interpellation. The interpellation is addressed to someone else, and I am now answering to someone other than the member who has posed the interpellation.
Economic family policy, and particularly the parental leave, contributes to the development towards equal parenting. We have a generous parental leave and a well-developed childcare system that provides the right conditions for parents to take a great responsibility for children and at the same time be able to work, but there are obviously continued challenges. Women take a significantly greater responsibility than men for the care of children during the longer parental leaves upon a child's birth or adoption and also when children are ill.
To facilitate parents in combining family life with work life, the parental insurance needs to be flexible based on the families' needs. Parents should have as great opportunities as possible to choose how the parental leave shall be used.
The government has implemented reforms that have increased the flexibility of the parental leave. Since July 1, 2024, the number of double days has been increased from 30 to 60 days, and the days can now also be used over a longer period.
Parents have also been given expanded opportunities to transfer the parental allowance to another insured person. The expanded double days additionally give parents the opportunity to together form closer bonds with their child early in the child's life.
It also lays the foundation for a shared responsibility, which can result in a more equal distribution of parental days also further into the parental leave. The possibilities to transfer parental benefit to a wider circle facilitate different family constellations in using just the parental benefit.
It is important that parents have good knowledge of the rules regarding parental leave, of the flexibility and freedom of choice that the rules allow, and of the short-term and long-term effects of the distribution of the parental leave. All parents need to be given good conditions to make informed choices about how the parental leave and the parental benefit can be distributed between them.
Försäkringskassan therefore has a goal to strengthen the conditions for an equal use of parental leave and temporary parental leave. Försäkringskassan's information shall contribute to parents gaining better knowledge about the rules of the parental insurance, about the possibilities of using the parental leave flexibly, and about the long-term effects of the distribution of the parental leave.
Economic equality is a prerequisite for an equal society, and the parental leave plays a very important role here. Equality can also mean more money in the wallet. For the vast majority of parent couples, it is profitable to share the parental leave, regardless of the wage difference between the parents. It simply depends on the fact that if both parents work half-time each, both receive job tax deductions and full parental pay.
Försäkringskassan has, in the regulation letter for 2026, been tasked with strengthening parents' knowledge regarding flexible parental leave benefits and what affects the finances during the parental leave. Försäkringskassan shall, among other things, increase knowledge of what affects the household's disposable income when parents choose how they distribute the parental leave benefits between themselves by developing the information for parents. Consideration shall be taken of, among other things, the effects of collectively agreed parental pay, the job tax deduction, and the state income tax. The assignment shall be reported by January 30, 2027, at the latest.
When the interpellator reported that she was prevented from attending the meeting, the first deputy speaker granted that Magdalena Sundqvist (S) instead was allowed to participate in the interpellation debate.
Magdalena Sundqvist (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister for Social Insurance!
I would like to go back to the question that was asked in the interpellation. What concrete measures do the Minister and the Government intend to take to achieve the goal of an equal parental leave?
We completely agree that the parental leave contributes to the development towards equal parenting. On the other hand, there is a great concern about what will happen in the future with the parental leave and its structure when several parties in the Tidö agreement do not share the minister's opinion that the parental leave that exists today contributes to development towards equal parenting, or perhaps do not consider equality to be important.
Since the 70s, the parental leave has been developed and designed into an increasingly important tool to achieve equality in Swedish society.
There has been a political endeavor from the very beginning that the use of parental leave should be distributed more evenly between women and men. Men's share of the days with parental leave has increased, and one must not overlook the fact that the reserved and earmarked days for each parent have contributed to this increase. However, we are not at the goal yet.
The gender equality goal – that women and men should have the same power to shape society and their own lives – is something we all have a duty to work towards. Today, unfortunately, it is not going so well, despite the fact that progress has been made since reserved months were introduced. In 2025, it was approximately 31 percent of the parental leave days that were taken by men.
The EU's work-life-balance directive entered into force to create better equality and facilitate for parents to combine career and family life. It contains minimum requirements for all member states, which for Sweden's part are currently met via the parental insurance.
It is a parental insurance that, with today's construction, is three-part. The sickness benefit-based parental days are divided into three parts. There are 90 days that are earmarked for each parent. 210 days they may divide between themselves as they wish.
The EU directive requires that at least two months shall be earmarked to each parent. Now, when several parties in the Tidö agreement are coming out and demanding that we remove the earmarking of these days to each parent, and these earmarked days have served us very well when it comes to taking steps forward towards the gender equality goal, I wonder: How does the minister plan to develop the parental leave in the future?
I also wonder: Is the minister prepared to meet with those parties in the Tidö coalition who want the reserved days to be removed and simply not follow the EU's work-life balance directive?
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Mr. Speaker! I am pleased that the member shares my hope that I will be allowed to continue to lead in these important matters and is therefore interested in what I want to do in the future. I think it is wonderful to hear that.
We can first and foremost state that when one moved from one month of paternity leave to two months of paternity leave, it had a fairly large effect. When one moved from two to three months of paternity leave or the reserved days for the father, one did not see the same effect at all when it comes to the equal take-up. I think it is important to convey this. But that being said, I do not think it is unimportant, and I have no intention of changing that distribution.
We have a generous and comprehensive parental insurance that we should be very proud of. It, together with extensive and generous childcare, has contributed to increasing equality in our society between women and men. The government has now continued that work, among other things by making the insurance even more flexible, given the different life situations that different families find themselves in.
The double days provide an opportunity for both parents to bond with their child early and can increase equality even when it comes to later withdrawals of parental leave and vab. I believe this has a very great significance.
When I launched the idea that we should double the number of double days, it was a very important part for me that we know through research and various studies that this improves women's opportunities for rehabilitation and convalescence and that the number of postpartum psychoses decreases with the help of double days. We also know that men who are home with their child early, who do chores in the home and who obviously form a bond with the child, tend to take out more parental days further ahead and also be involved in sharing the work with temporary parental allowance. It is a very important development.
The possibility of transferring parental days has primarily benefited single women, mothers who are in the middle of life and have a career and the opportunity to return to work. We see this very clearly. But this has also been very good for star families where there may be more adults than the biological parents who are willing to take part in the parental leave and, in the future, also vab.
That we have a regulatory framework that keeps pace with the times and with different types of family formations and with the needs one has in a family is both right and proper. A fundamental social insurance benefit, such as the parental insurance, must have those ingredients.
The number of children for whom the double days are used has increased by over 5,000. The number of days has also increased. The follow-up that Försäkringskassan has conducted shows, among other things, that among parents who used the double days, the proportion who shared the parental leave equally was 7 percent higher than among those parents who did not utilize the double days. It is actually quite a large difference, and there is great potential there.
The investigation of the effects of the double days also shows that the possibility of concurrent withdrawals affects groups of men who have previously not taken any parental leave at all. If these days are taken early in life, it follows all the way. This is something that I view very positively and that I can imagine continuing to work with.
Magdalena Sundqvist (S)
Mr. Speaker! I do not doubt what is best after September 13th. But, as someone said, there are eons of time left until then. Furthermore, it is very important to give the voters a clear message when there are party leaders in your base who have as an absolute requirement that the earmarking be removed. In that case, it is important that those of you who hold the ministerial posts are clear about what we can expect.
When it comes to transferring parental days to others, I can say that it is the grandmother who takes those days, not the grandfather and grandfather. It is the women in the older generation who take much of this responsibility.
I want to go back a bit to the interpellation answer. I see that the Minister in the interpellation answer has a great confidence that what is missing right now to move forward in the matter of equality is information. If only parents would ensure they are a bit more informed, equality would increase.
In the interpellation answer, it is actually the concrete measure that is specified to ensure that the parental insurance remains relevant within the work for gender equality. It is precisely about information from Försäkringskassan.
When you go to the Försäkringskassan website today, you see that it is full of information about the benefits of equal parenting. What is the additional information required for one to achieve an equal parental leave?
Have I interpreted the minister correctly, that the sharpest tool for achieving an equal parental leave is precisely expanded information from Försäkringskassan?
Given how much information already exists, I wonder: Should we not have succeeded better?
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Mr. Speaker! I do not think one should underestimate the importance of being well-informed and having knowledge of different effects on the wallet – both here and now and in the future.
The Speaker may be very well-informed and well-versed in the excellence of the job tax credit. But I must say that when I received the report on the job tax credit's significance for an equal distribution and how much money there is to be earned for parents who share parental leave equally thanks to the job tax credit, I was quite surprised. That aspect, which concerns it being more profitable to work and that we are working with the job tax credits, I actually had not seen coming.
It is very possible that the member is well-informed. I believe, however, that Swedish parents are not quite aware of the job tax deduction's fantastic effect specifically when it comes to an equal distribution of the parental leave. I believe it is very important that we provide information about this right now in troubled times.
We inherited sky-high inflation, soaring interest rates, and a prolonged recession from the Social Democratic government. Now we have pushed inflation back. Interest rates have been pushed back, and food prices are now down thanks to the fact that we have halved the food VAT.
It is still quite tough, however. It is clear that a prolonged recession affects many, and especially families with children. But a family with two children has received more than 5,000 kronor more in their wallet every month since 2022, and we intend to continue that journey in the next mandate period.
The consequence of the job tax credit is more money in the wallet if one shares parental leave equally. Försäkringskassan has been given a mandate to look into these issues and inform that it could amount to approximately 2,000 kronor extra per month if one shares equally.
The median wage in Sweden for private and municipal workers lies between 32,000 and 34,000 kronor per month, and parents are on average off for 16 months during the child's first two years. Two parents who both earn 30,000 kronor receive over 2,000 kronor more per month for the household if they share the parental leave equally compared to if one parent is at home for an entire calendar year. This is due to the parental benefit and also to the job tax deduction.
If one parent earns 30,000 kronor and the other earns 40,000–55,000 kronor, the profit decreases, but they still get around 900 kronor more per month if they split it equally.
It is with larger wage differences that I believe it sometimes becomes really difficult for the parents, because then they think that if one earns 30,000 a month and the other 70,000, one loses too much if the one who earns 70,000 is on parental leave. But that is not the case at all. They would receive almost as much as the couple where both earn 30,000 kronor – almost 2,000 kronor extra per month, and this is because the household that shares equally will pay less in state income tax.
Equality simply puts more money in the wallet. If more parents knew about this, given that economy is a decisive part when deciding who should stay at home, I definitely believe that we would have had a more equal distribution of the parental leave. The job tax credit is good for equality and puts more money in the wallet.
Magdalena Sundqvist (S)
Mr. Speaker! It sounds like the Minister thinks we have arrived. I do not think we have arrived – 31 percent of the days are being taken out by men today.
The Minister and I agree that equality is important. But I am seriously concerned about what happens if the Tidö coalition were to govern after September 13, because I am not convinced that other parties would not gain an excessively large influence in this issue.
One must never forget that everyone benefits from equality. Fathers need time with their children just as much as mothers do. Mothers need a stable economic existence, economic power over their lives, and the opportunity for a good pension just as much as fathers do. Children deserve attachment to both of their parents.
Today, I had hoped to receive an answer that could make me feel secure that my daughter in the future was guaranteed a more equal family and career life than my mother and grandmother had. I had hoped that the minister would show clarity and really put his foot down towards his party colleagues and speak about how some reserved and earmarked days absolutely will not be removed.
Just that answer I have not received. Instead, I have become even more convinced that we must guarantee an equal family and professional life in the future, and for that, a shift in power in Sweden is needed.
If today's young people are to be guaranteed an equal future, it is extremely important that the Social Democrats are allowed to be part of the government after September 13. Our young people must be guaranteed a society, a parenthood, and a professional life where everyone is given the opportunity to combine career and family life, regardless of gender.
Äldre- och socialförsäkringsministern Anna Tenje (M)
Mr. Speaker! Many thanks to MP Sundqvist for a good discussion and debate! These are very important issues, and I believe that we fundamentally share very much.
If I were satisfied and thought we were there? No, in that case, I would not have given a sharp mandate to the authorities to inform about the excellence of the job tax credit, the advantages of it, and that in the long run it leads to one earning from an equal distribution of the parental leave. Not just because it gives positive effects for the child, probably for the relationship, and also for the woman that one does not just share parental leave but also vab and furthermore perhaps the unpaid work at home, but it is also good for the relationship, for the woman, and definitely for society as a whole.
Mr. Speaker! With a Tidö government, we know that we will get a job tax credit that favors equality and that makes it so that more people benefit from sharing equally. We also know what we get with the red-greens. Then we get higher taxes for hard-working ordinary people who will not receive this job tax credit. Ultimately, it will not only be a step backward so that it won't be an extra 5,000 kronor every month, but it will also result in even higher taxes.
It will sting hard in the wallet if the red-greens are allowed to proceed, and if one sits there counting crowns and öre, one might not reach the conclusion that one should share the parental leave equally.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.