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Comment by vortico | Hacker News Reader

I'm dumb and don't know anything about maternity/paternity leave. What prevents someone from being hired by a company, taking leave due to a child in X days, taking the salary the government forces the company to give you, and quitting Y days after you return? What if X and Y are a month or even one day? Could companies could be scammed for a year of salary while getting only a few days of value out of their employee?

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Specifically in France: Paternity leave is not paid by employers but by social security.

The person still needs to have worked (and thus paid into the system through salary contributions) above a certain threshold in order to qualify.

Employers can top up this payment but can then impose conditions (e.g. only after a year in the company or whatever)

This is the case in Canada as well. If one of my employees went on leave, I'd have to find a way to cover their work, but it wouldn't cost me extra.

Oh, I see how it works then. It's funded through income tax from the employee's past work history. Thanks!

There's an additional tax in addition to income tax, but let's not get into French taxes... ;)

Why not get into the topic of taxes in a discussion of social security? :) They're the two sides of the same coin. There seems to be little discussion in here on the tax cost of this paternity leave law.

I only meant that the French tax system is complex.

In Denmark you are not entitled to a full salary during your leave. You are entitled to around 2k€ per month from the government (if you qualify).

However, it is a quite common employee benefit, that the employer pays full salary for part of or for the entire parental leave. The employer is then reimbursed from the government for the first 2k€ every month.

Nothing prevents you from quitting when you get back from parental leave. Except that you probably already have a lot on your mind with a little child - why add the extra pressure of switching jobs?

Well, the scam doesn't scale well. You need to make a new child each time.

> Well, the scam doesn't scale well. You need to make a new child each time.

Indeed. I keep hearing that line of argument from Americans in particular: "But but but if healthcare is free, what will stop people from living an unhealthy life and having society pay the cost??" – eh, the fact that having cancer and heart problems in order to scam society is just a really really unattractive and unscaleable idea?

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