les prestations sociales dans les pays européens

Research Report| February2016 Which Countries in Europe Offer the Fairest Paid Leave and Unemployment Benefits? Foreword The social safety net is an integral part of today’s labour market. Unemployment beneits take the rough edges off the business cycle, and paid maternity leave has been shown to improve children’s 1 wellbeing for decades down the road. Although popular, workplace social beneits remain controversial. Programs typically aim at three goals: Providing help to workers in need, preserving work incentives, and keeping costs under control. Economists teach these goals are fundamentally in conlict—the so-called “iron triangle” of social welfare programs. More of one goal implies less of the others, requiring hard trade-offs when designing programs. This report from Glassdoor Economic Research, conducted by Llewellyn Consulting, provides an eye-opening tour of workplace beneits in Europe. We compare the generosity of social beneits in ive key areas: Unemployment beneits, paid maternity and paternity leave; general parental leave; paid holiday allowances; and paid sick leave. Workplace social programs in Europe are generally far more generous than in the U.S. Yet even within Europe beneits vary dramatically. Ireland, Switzerland, and the U.K. offer only modest beneits while Denmark, France, and Spain offer some of the most generous workplace beneits in the world. Europe in many ways is an experimental laboratory for workplace policies.