Randers, Denmark Susanne Østedgaard-Munck35, and her husband has been living a toddler for almost ten years. Issue Emilia9, Sirius7, Allie4, and Victoria3, make sure that time in the Jutland family is not long.
The Østedgaard-Munck couple got two oldest children during their studies and two youngest already in working life. According to her mother, the baby’s sheet was very different as a student than at work.
“I would say 100 % to others that maternity as a student was a perfect solution,” says Susanne Østedgaard-Munck.
New Danish wage survey partly supports the idea. A team led by Aarhus University explored the salary development of women with children at different stages of life.
According to the study, women who have children already have children during their studies receive higher wages at the age of 40 than women who have their first children only after moving to work.
The result applies to lower university students. In Denmark, it means, for example, students in health care, education and social work.
During their studies, those who have a child accumulate a certain amount of skills that allow them to get better -paid jobs, says Aarhus University Professor of Economics Astrid Würtz Rasmussen with colleagues.
– They may be better to plan and organize things. And these are the features that employers value, says Würtz Rasmussen.
University students in a different payroll
For those who graduated in a higher education degree, wage developments were different. By the age of 40, women who had children during university time did not catch on wage development women who had no children when they started working.
On the other hand, women who had children during their university had a higher primary salary than women who had no children.
– Women who had already had children started with a higher salary in their first job. We believe that that is why their wages were no longer significantly increased during his career, says researcher Würtz Rasmussen.
According to Würtz Rasmussen, the higher initial salary may be due to the fact that employers may see newly prepared workers who have already had children in a positive light.
In both groups of education, women who had a child during their studies were graduated a couple of years later.
The research material is based on the salary information registered by Statistics Finland for 20 years. There are nearly 130,000 Danish women with one or more children.
Next, researchers want to find out what happens to women’s pay level after the age of 40.
Watch the video of what Aarhus University students said about the results of the study:
Denmark birth rate of Finland higher than Finland
Like Finland, Denmark considers ways to increase birth rate, even though the country’s total fertility rate is the highest in the Nordic countries after Iceland. Total fertility ratio refers to the average number of children that a woman receives during her lifetime.
The graphics below show the situation in different Nordic countries:
With the new activities of the Danish Social Democratic government, for example, involuntary childless people will be able to try in vitro fertilization six times free. In addition to another Couples and self -wishing parents receive free fertilization treatment at public clinics.
Fertilization treatments for female couples are more comprehensive than before. The five -year time limit for freezing egg cells has also been removed.
Politicians also believe in economic incentives. According to the government, for example, certain tax reforms facilitate the financial situation of single -parent families. The free school meal starting next summer received extensive support in the Parliament and hopes to bring relief to the everyday life of low -income families with children.
There are only estimates of the efficiency of the actions. Some experts are pleased, others also suggest significant tax breaks for families with children or additional investment in the kindergarten and school system.
Graphics illustrates how birth rate has evolved in recent years in the Nordic countries:
Student parents have flexible schedules
There is no precise information on the number of Danish student mothers, but according to the study, less than a fifth of Danish students would have children.
Professor Würtz Rasmussen, a professor at the University of Aarhus, says, according to his research, that there should be no fear of having children during their studies.
“In fact, it’s even recommended,” says Würtz Rasmussen.
Susanne Østedgaard-Munck and her husband decided to have children already while students simply because they wanted. They knew some other student parents, so it didn’t seem exceptional to start a family with children.
Now as a doctor, Østedgaard-Munck says that for the mother of infants, studying time was definitely the most flexible period.
– If a child becomes ill or has a dental time, the family does not need to discuss which one will stay home or leave earlier. Those times were really nice, says Østedgaard-Munck.