Sweden Law Says Grandparents Must Be Paid For Babysitting: Is It Groundbreaking?

Sweden passed a groundbreaking new law on July 15, 2024, allowing grandparents to step in and get paid parental leave while taking care of their grandchildren for a month and and half and up to three months in case of a single parent of a child's first year. The development comes after the Swedish parliament’s approval in December 2023 of the government’s proposal to transfer parental allowance. The Nordic country is also the first country in the world to offer paid parental leaves to both to the parents of a child, this magnificent advancement has been made 50 years after that.

Sweden Law Allows Grandparents To Be Paid For Babysitting

Under the Social Insurance Agency, a government agency that administers the social insurance system, parents can now transfer some generous amount of their allowance to the child's grandparents. Swedish Parents are entitled to be fully off work when their child is born. 

The country has consistently ensured that its citizens are taken care of till their last breath through its comprehensive taxpayer-funded social welfare system. Parental benefit is paid out for 480 days, or about 16 months, per child. Of those, the compensation for 390 days is calculated based on a person's full income while for the remaining 90 days, people get a fixed amount of 180 kronor (USD 17) per day.

Swedish parents can also benefit from the option of reduced working hours till 8 years of their child with government employees eligible for reduced hours until their child turns 12. Alexandra Wallin of the Social Insurance Agency told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the new law will provide “greater opportunities” for families.

Since 1974, when Sweden replaced gender-specific maternity leave with parental leave for fathers as well, the numbers have increased significantly from just 0.5% initially to around 30% of the fathers benefitting today, according to the Social Insurance Agency.

The new law will be favourable for the overall growth of children as a grandparent's role in a pupil's life is exceptionally vital with the values and experiences that they provide. It will also be beneficial to the grandparents in eradicating their loneliness as well as helping them to sustain their time healthily which further leads them to living a prosperous life.