[K Population Strategy]

(39) Sweden's No.1 Company Atlas Copco

Working Fathers Also Personally Handle Children's Drop-off and Pick-up

"Men Can Take Parental Leave Three Times"

Jakob Borjesson (35, male), who works in the IT department at Atlas Copco Group in Stockholm, Sweden, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 13th, "My manager is always considerate so that I can work flexibly, and I adjust accordingly, so if I go to work a bit late, I leave a bit late. If my child is sick, I also work from home," he said.

Atlas Copco, Sweden's top company by market capitalization, is an industrial equipment sales company founded in 1873. As of 2022, it has 49,000 employees worldwide. Borjesson has taken parental leave three times during his career. While at Atlas Copco, he took two parental leaves: 10 months when his second child was born four years ago, and 8 months when his third child was born two years ago. He said, "It is not at all difficult to find male or female employees at Atlas Copco who have taken parental leave," and added, "Even outside Atlas Copco, in most Swedish companies, men take parental leave."

Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce 'paternity leave' in 1974, and currently, up to 480 days of parental leave can be used per child. Of these, 90 days are allocated specifically for fathers, making it mandatory for men to use them. This was increased from 60 days in 2002 to 90 days in 2016. The aim is to increase men's share of housework and expand women's economic activity. As more women took parental leave, their position in the workplace weakened and their pension income after retirement became lower than men's, so the government stepped in to further expand mandatory paternity leave. About 87% of parents of all children born in 2021 took parental leave.

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Sweden also has a high income replacement rate during parental leave. For 195 days of parental leave, 80% of income is compensated. In addition, collective agreements at each company can provide further wage compensation, so the actual income replacement rate reaches about 90%. In Korea, the income replacement rate during parental leave is only in the 40% range. If you have a child, you have the legal right to work part-time, and for hours not worked, you can receive allowances based on the parental leave system.

Thanks to the paternity leave quota and similar policies, Sweden's total fertility rate rose to 1.98 in 2010 and has remained in the 1.5 range in recent years. The number of working women has also increased significantly. The labor force participation rate of Swedish women is 80.8%, the highest among European countries. Sweden has also invested heavily in expanding childcare facilities for children under three, so that parents can focus on work without worrying about childcare.

Borjesson also shares childcare responsibilities equally with his working wife for their three children. "Since my wife and I work at almost the same times, we take turns dropping off and picking up the kids from kindergarten," he said.

"My wife's and my working hours change each term, so they are slightly different each time. If I drop off the three kids and go to work at 9 a.m., my wife picks them up at 3 p.m. when she gets off work. Sometimes it's the other way around."

In Nordic countries, paternity leave is a given. It is mandatory in most cases. Sweden made it compulsory for fathers to take 30 days of paternity leave in 1991. Denmark recently introduced an 11-week mandatory paternity leave system. The photo shows a father pushing a stroller on a street in Copenhagen.

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Borjesson said, "If I drop off the kids at 8 a.m., I go to work at 9 a.m. and leave at 6 p.m." He continued, "On that day, my wife is in charge of picking them up. She goes to work at 7 a.m. and leaves at 3 p.m., then brings the kids home," adding, "She works from home for the one hour she can't cover." He said, "The kids are always with either mom or dad, so they don't need outside help and are happier being with family."

Borjesson said, "Even before taking parental leave, I felt no work burden." This was thanks to a substitute worker hired by the company. "That employee was a full-time contract worker, and the handover period was included in the contract period," he said. "At the time, the employee had just graduated from university and was about 25 years old, and I had enough time over four weeks before taking leave to explain the work," he explained. "For difficult tasks that were hard for a junior to handle, more experienced team members helped out," he said. "For higher-level tasks, team members divided up the work so everything could be handled without gaps."

However, Borjesson emphasized, "Employees must work responsibly and keep the set eight working hours." Since the company gives employees autonomy, they must do their best during working hours. In Sweden, what matters is not the hours worked, but what you actually do and accomplish. He said, "Atlas Copco has a culture of understanding and being understood about flexible work, so it has become part of the company culture," adding, "I hope this culture spreads even more in the future."

In Denmark, where bicycles are one of the main means of transportation, it is common to see fathers using strollers and devices connected to them for childcare. Children are riding inside the strollers. Photo by Lee Hyunju

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'Mothers and fathers in countries with generous parental leave policies, including Sweden, have a lower risk of depression and burnout.' This is the result of a study last year by researchers at the Department of Public Health Sciences at Stockholm University on the impact of extended parental leave on mental health. Other studies have also shown that Swedish fathers who took parental leave were less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as alcohol abuse, and immigrant fathers who took more parental leave had lower rates of psychiatric hospitalization.

Sweden sees family-friendly policies that help balance work and family life as an investment that goes beyond welfare. To this end, national-level efforts have been ongoing. According to 'The Population Crisis,' published in 1934 by Swedish sociologist Alva Myrdal and political economist Gunnar Myrdal, who received the Nobel Peace Prize (1982) and Nobel Prize in Economics (1973) respectively, Sweden also recorded the world's lowest birth rate due to social changes from industrialization, much like Korea today. From that time, the Swedish government, political parties, and experts from various fields began to consider ways to promote work-family balance by increasing men's participation in childcare and women's economic activity.

As a result, Sweden reached a consensus that it needed welfare policies that simultaneously pursue high employment rates, low gender pay gaps, and increased birth rates to establish a social system where work-family balance is possible. Currently, Sweden invests 260 billion kronor (about 31 trillion won), or 25% of the national budget, in welfare policies every year.

What efforts are needed to adapt Sweden's example to Korea's reality? Experts point out that political circles must also strengthen institutional arrangements at the national level to enable voluntary efforts by companies. Choi Yeonhyuk, professor at Linnaeus University, emphasized, "The most important thing is the government's will, and there must be a political party willing to compromise on this issue." He diagnosed that unless there is a consensus based on national agreement, these issues will be consumed merely as tools for political strife.

However, Professor Choi predicted that it would take a long time to solve Korea's low birth rate problem. He said, "Given the current political situation, (effective) legislation on these issues is not being passed and is only becoming a topic of debate," adding, "If it is not connected to votes, it is ignored, and such a procedurally undemocratic approach cannot solve the problem."

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