Satisfaction and 'comparison sharing'

Despite the high degree of flexibility and generosity in Sweden’s parental leave program, one fifth of
parents are not satisfied with the sharing of parental leave. This paper investigates whether ‘comparison
sharing’, the sharing of parental leave by other comparable couples, influences the probability of satisfaction.
Results show that comparison sharing impacts satisfaction for women, and that those women
who share more equally than their peers are more likely to be satisfied, whereas comparison sharing has
no influence on satisfaction for men. Also, parents are less likely to be satisfied if their work situation
determines the sharing of parental leave.