EEA Comment on work-life balance

Published 20-02-2016
On 22 February 2016, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway submitted an EEA EFTA comment on possible EU action to address the challenges of work-life balance faced by working parents and caregivers.

The EEA EFTA States, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, have introduced various policy and legislative initiatives to assist working parents to achieve a better balance between work and family life. Some of these initiatives including the introduction of high quality, affordable childcare, shared parental leave and flexible working arrangements have been largely successful. Nonetheless, important challenges remain – most notably in relation to the gender pay gap and gender segregation of the labour market.

In the view of the EEA EFTA States, measures to address women’s under-representation in the labour market will ease related problems such as female and child poverty and the gender pension gap. They fully support EU action to improve and to better enforce EU/EEA legislation in this area as well as potential softer policy initiatives. At the same time, the principle of subsidiarity and the interests of small businesses should be taken into consideration in the formulation of any such measures.

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EEA EFTA Comment on work-life balance

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