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The hidden economic price that parents pay in the Knesset

Given the uncertainty regarding the activity of the education system in the coming year, many parents who have been fired or expelled to the Knesset - and especially mothers - prefer to wait with a new job search until the situation is clarified. The choice is understandable, but there is no small risk

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• unemployment

Anat Dariel

Monday, 26 October 2020, 11:57

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The second wave of the Corona crisis led to a resumption of the education system, just two and a half weeks after the end of summer vacation.

Even now, when reopening begins, a large proportion of children are still at home.

No one knows how to ensure what the continuation of the school year will look like - will it be possible to return to school in full format by the end of the year, or will there be additional closures?

Not to mention all the intermediate options of opening in a partial format.

Given the continuing uncertainty about the functioning of the education system, parents who have been fired or gone to the labor market are in no hurry to return to the labor market. The option of receiving unemployment benefits as long as children are not in a permanent setting often seems preferable to finding a new job. (And this is not always possible in terms of the type of work) - It is very difficult to do this in parallel with functioning as a full-time parent.

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Being with the kids is good, nice and understandable - but giving up the job market can have painful consequences

I wrote "parents", but it must be said honestly: In most homes, mothers are the ones who are more affected by the shutdown of the education system - in the first wave and even more so in the second.

According to the Employment Service, women accounted for 62.7% of jobseekers in September, compared with 57.1% in March.

The Employment Service explains that "one of the reasons for this is the cessation of the education system's activities" and points to a trend according to which mothers are in no hurry to return to looking for work due to uncertainty about the future of the education system.

The decision is understandable: since the average salary of women is significantly lower than the average salary of men, when the couple is required to decide who will stay with the children at home and who will keep his job - the sensible economic choice is to give up the woman's salary.

Third, women on average play a more significant role in raising children, so the burden of "juggling" between the professional role and the parental role falls on them more strongly.

However, choosing to extend the sick leave rather than rush to look for another job has a much heavier economic cost than is apparent. Many parents make a short-term consideration that if both parents return to work, they will have to pay for childcare that offsets a significant portion of the woman's salary. That you will extend the sick leave and receive unemployment benefits, no?

That is, not really.

Delaying back to work can have a heavy impact on future earning capacity.

Those mothers who stay home at this time are giving up on gaining experience that can help them move forward in the future and improve their pay.

They do not keep up with the professional developments in their field, do not form new professional relationships and lose relationships that they have created in the past.

At the same time, other people gain experience, knowledge and connections and bypass them.

They remain in place as the labor market progresses.

When their entitlement to unemployment benefits ends and they want to return to the labor market, they will find that good jobs have been filled, and that they are competing for the remaining jobs with hundreds of thousands more like them, who have also been "spilled" into the labor market at once.

The sense of ability, which is so important in the process of finding a job, especially when there is a lot of competition for jobs, is also damaged and may make it difficult for them when they try to return to the market.

The Israeli public still signs unemployment, but returning to the labor market has many benefits

Anat Dariel

It is also important to remember that for many of them, this is not the first time they find themselves in this situation: many mothers take time off from the labor market in the first years of childbirth, and when children grow up a little and want to go back to work, they discover that work or school friends have progressed. They are offered junior jobs at low pay.

The price is not just economic, of course: the job market provides opportunities for realizing personal abilities and self-realization beyond self-realization as parents (which is undoubtedly a tremendous source of feelings of happiness and power).

It also allows us to meet and get to know other adults and expand our social circle and more than once colleagues become friends for life.

Livelihood provides a sense of independence and contributes to self-confidence.

The woman's knowledge that she is financially independent may also contribute to the relationship (and of course it is critical in the event of a divorce).

Against the background of the great distress that parents are in, it seems to me that the long-term economic consideration has been forgotten, or not taken into account enough.

When a parent makes a decision that the mother will stay home with the children, he or she must understand that this choice has a significant impact on the household income not only now but also in the future.

Staying from a choice in the Knesset has an economic price in the medium and long term, just as there is a freeze on a loan or the redemption of the study fund to cover current household expenses. These are good solutions that exist, but it is important to use them only if you really need them. If there is an option to return to the labor market - this is often an economically preferred option, as it allows the employee to maintain her value in the labor market and continue to raise

it.There may also be benefits in the immediate term: wages may be higher than unemployment benefits (even if there are babysitting expenses In addition, when there is job security, it is easier to make decisions about the present or the future that have economic significance (such as a decision to get married, have another child, buy an apartment and take out a mortgage.) Planning ahead economic moves help increase family capital.

I do not seek to preach morality to anyone.

My heart goes out to my parents.

As a mother to older children, I identify with their difficulty, even if I do not experience it in the same way.

All I want to say is that it is important to understand the long-term economic significance.

So, if the scenario I described bothers you as parents and you as mothers, do everything possible to find alternatives: get organized with friends or neighbors to keep the children on duty, hire a babysitter, just do not give up returning to the job market.

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