Looking for inspirational, cutting-edge work/life benefits? Take a global glance: Twelve months of paid parental leave. Free day care until age 4. Subsidized afterschool care up to the tween years. Reduced workweeks until your children are 8. Wow! We collected an international sampling of head-turning family benefits from countries that truly embrace work/life policies. Take a peek. A little worldwide influence just might motivate creative thinking about the possibilities here in the States—and elsewhere on the planet.   

JAPAN In this driven corporate culture, all employees are granted flexible schedules—shorter hours, flextime or overtime exemption—for the first two years of parenthood. Large firms, those with more than 300 employees, must provide child-care options, such as on-site centers or temporary leaves.

PHILIPPINES Self-employed workers who register with national Social Security and health insurance plans receive free maternity care and discounts on dental visits and eye exams. Almost 85 percent of the participants in this program are women.


SWEDEN Named a top country for working women by the World Economic Forum, Sweden offers a generous family leave policy—up to 18 months off at partial pay—and parents can work reduced hours until their children are 8. Under the "leisure-time care" program, children receive before- and afterschool care until age 12, with sliding-scale fees.

SENEGAL This West African nation gives mothers protection from being fired for any reason upon return from maternity leave. Like its neighbor Mali, Senegal offers an impressive 15 months of job-secured leave.

ISRAEL Mothers here receive free hospitalization and a "maternity grant" of 20 percent of their monthly wage to purchase supplies for their newborn.

NEW ZEALAND New mothers are entitled to 14 weeks of paid leave, and single moms can take off as much as six months with pay before and after childbirth, depending on their income. They also receive a small cash stipend, based on earnings, for three months before and after having their child.

SLOVENIA Moms and dads in this small Balkan nation receive 365 days of fully paid family leave that they can use anytime before their child's eighth birthday.

MEXICO Child care here is a constitutional right. Workers are entitled to free employer-provided day care until children reach age 4.

FRANCE After a 16-week-long paid maternity leave, mothers can enroll their babies in home-based care or at full-day care centers at little or no cost until age 3, when they enter subsidized preschool.