As birth rates continue to decline in Cuba, officials in the country are expanding leave policies not just to new moms and dads, but to grandparents, as well — in hopes of triggering a baby boom.
With nearly 20 percent of the population over the age of 60, according to the official Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma, officials are scrambling to find a fix that will increase birth rates — a problem that’s plagued Cuba for more than 30 years.
“The overall fertility rate for more than three decades has not surpassed the 2.1 children per woman necessary to ensure adequate population replacement,” Granma reported earlier this month.
The Washington Post attributed this to “a combination of effective socialist medical care and a dysfunctional state-run economy.” Cuba’s healthcare system makes contraception easily available, while at the same time many women don’t have the means to support children, the Post said.
Cuban officials said the new policy targets Cuba’s “high level of population aging” while also “encouraging a greater birth rate in the immediate term,” Granma reported. By extending leave benefits to grandparents, officials hope to help alleviate the stress of returning to work for new moms and dads.
“It will be possible for working maternal or paternal grandparents to take charge of the care of the child until the age of one and receive the corresponding social security benefit of 60 percent of their average monthly salary over the past 12 months – a benefit previously only extended to fathers,” Granma reported.
Other benefits of the policy include reduced daycare costs for parents with more than one child, and tax breaks for women who work in the private sector.
“The island already has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the Americas, allowing mothers and fathers to take more than a year off from work at partial pay,” the Post noted.
Cuba isn’t the first country to make these types of child care leave policies available to grandparents. In 2015, the United Kingdom expanded their parental leave policy to grandparents.
The benefits to grandparents go beyond the policy. A study, published last year, found that grandparents who cared for their grandchildren lived roughly five years longer than those who did not.
