The Margin has little expectation that any Irish employers will follow the lead of Sweden's largest company, Ericsson, which is taking the unusual step of increasing family benefits to encourage more men to stay at home with their children.
The mobile telephone maker, which employs 44,000 people in Sweden, said it would increase maternity and paternity leave benefits - already among the most generous in the world - to persuade parents with young children to stay away from work.
"We don't just want to send that message to be nice, but we want to have an image as an attractive employer," said Bo Lindgren, director of human resources at Ericsson.
Swedish parents are already allowed to collect up to 80 per cent of their salaries while taking 12 months off when they have children. Mothers and fathers must split the year between them.
Because the highest amount that can be collected is 80 per cent of a monthly salary of about $2,828 (€2,641), mothers, who normally have lower salaries, end up taking most of the time off.
Ericsson said the additional benefit was aimed at men but denied it was taking the step to discourage male engineers from taking jobs overseas where they can make more money, a problem the company has had in the past.
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