I'm not sure that a utopia exists in the world these days. The political situation back home baffles and infuriates me. And Europe is facing its fair share of troubles with terrorist attacks, the growing immigration problem, and the failed economies of the Southern countries.
But life in the Netherlands (for now) is good. This is not a socialist country, but you could have fooled me. Taxes are high, but the people are taken care of, higher education is dirt cheap and the people here are generally happy and proud of their small, well-run country.
We are benefitting immensely from some of the Dutch socialist-esque policies starting with the
child allowance, which is soon to double when baby girl arrives in May and the
Kraamzorg.
Day care and the Kinderopvangtoeslag (AKA: Childcare allowance):
As in America, daycare here is not cheap. Jude's center charges around 8 euro ($9) an hour and you pay for the full 11 hour day regardless of how many hours you use. Apart from a private nanny, this is on the high end and comparable to what we found in Brooklyn. However, in every household where both parents are either working or studying, kinderopvangtoeslag is given monthly by the government. It is based on income levels and the number of hours you work/send your child to daycare, but we get over 40% back, making daycare very affordable at around 4.50 euro ($5) per hour!
Next up: Maternity leave.
It took working 5 years and saving practically every sick day to get ~12 weeks of paid leave from my job in New York. I could have used vacation time as well, but I never had any of that saved! There was no "paid leave," just using your own time. Of course, this policy varies greatly from employer to employer in America and may be seen as good to some and awful to others.
In the Netherlands, all female employees receive around 16 weeks of maternity leave, paid by the government. The first 4 weeks have to be before your due date (hence seeing lots of very pregnant women out at cafes during the daytime!). The rest are taken after baby arrives.
Working for myself now as a consultant, I had no expectations of making any income during the period of time I'll take off with baby girl. Then I heard about the Zelfstandig en Zwangerrgeling (ZEZ). Maternity Benefit Scheme for the Self-Employed!! I, too, will get paid maternity leave for 16 weeks since I have a registered business and am paying Dutch taxes. For the self-employed, the daily wage is capped at the minimum wage so I won't be raking it in, but it is still unexpected money! And there was no minimum amount of time I needed to work before qualifying, I just had to prove that I was earning a steady income up until my due date.
Paternity leave is a different story entirely. Men are entitled to just 2 days (will change in 2017 to 1 week). Here, the Dutch could do a lot better!
Lastly: Part time work= part time benefits
You know how in the States, you only qualify to receive benefits if you work a minimum number of hours a week? Well here everything is prorated. So if you work 25%, you get 25% of benefits paid, 75%=75%, ect. This extremely reasonable policy must be part of why the culture of part time work is so prevalent. Families don't have to worry about losing their benefits if one of the partners goes part time.
We feel very fortunate to be living in a country that has policies like these and hope to return one day to an America heading in that direction. This year's election will be very telling... and we'll be on the edge of our seats over here!
