Shared earning/shared parenting marriage, also known as peer marriage, is a type of marriage where partners at the outset agree to adhere to a model of shared responsibility for earning money, meeting the needs of children, doing household chores, and taking recreation time in near equal fashion across these four domains.; ; It refers to an intact family formed in the relatively equal earning and parenting style from its initiation. Peer marriage is distinct from shared parenting, as well as the type of equal or co-parenting that father's rights activists in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere seek after a divorce in the case of marriages, or unmarried pregnancies/childbirths, not set up in this fashion at the outset of the relationship or pregnancy.
Mechanics
The equality of men and women who engage in this type of marriage and family is usually measured primarily with regard to the psychological perspective of the participants. Both take responsibility for earning a substantial contribution to the family's income (sufficient to meet at least half of the family's basic expenses and preferably some reserve) and both identify as primary parents to children, responsible for childcare, meeting children's needs and supporting children's development, and as responsible for half the unpaid work of the home.
Earnings
Because earnings levels can vary with marketplace conditions, "equality" of earnings may vary, although each parent does consider him/herself to be a core earner in the family and neither's employment is considered more important than the other's.
Although parenting styles may differ between the parents, both identify as responsible for the child's welfare and the success of their upbringing, not just in terms of providing financially but personally and developmentally.
For people raised by parents who did not adopt these dual-focus responsibilities, this identification can entail a psychological adjustment. Child psychiatrist Kyle Pruett, educator John Badalament, sociology journalist Jeremy Adam Smith, educator Donald S. Unger, and psychologist Joshua Coleman, in separate efforts, have considered the psychological transition some men experience as they take on a more engaged relationship with their children and do the work of meeting a dependent child's needs, if their own fathers did not do this during their upbringing.
A number of authors have also considered the transition women experience in taking economic responsibility for meeting children's needs (or even their own needs) if their mothers did not; one famous example being philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex in 1949, but also more contemporary writers such as Rhona Mahony. Psychologist Stephan Poulter has looked at how the father's legacy, including from a home where the mother did not earn money, affects women's approaches to careers.
Naming children Many of these families avoid the practice of naming children just with the father's family name and include the mother's family name as well, with the objective of supporting the parental identification and the child's two-parent family history. Some encourage gender-neutrality in passing along the surname. For example, families may use double surnames that combine the usual patrilineal surname family name with a parallel matrilineal surname,Sykes, Bryan (2001). The Seven Daughters of Eve. W.W. Norton. ; pp. 291-2. Bryan Sykes uses the word matriname and suggests that women add their own matriname to men's patriname (or "surname" as Sykes calls it), effectively suggesting this double surname. (He does not discuss the man adding his patriname to the woman's matriname in matrilineal societies.) Professor Sykes also states on p. 292 that a matriname would then be handed down with mitochondrial DNA, the main topic of his book. In subsequent generations the sons may retain the patrilineal half of their double surname when they marry, dropping the matrilineal half, and the daughters may do the reverse, retaining the matrilineal half and dropping the patrilineal half.
Child care
With respect to child care, and unpaid work within the household, time spent on the tasks is equal and both parents are equally responsible for meeting the needs of the child, although parenting styles may differ between the two parents. Although the biological demands on women in pregnancy and childbirth may mean that they take more leave from paid work during this time, men in these marriages take an equal amount of leave, perhaps subsequent to or staggered with the woman's leave in addition to a short period of a week or two jointly taken with the mother during the time of the birth and recovery. If the woman breastfeeds, this is typically the most significant challenge in accomplishing equal child care. To manage it, the man makes an effort to spend as much time with the baby as she spends on breastfeeding, perhaps focusing particularly on other child care needs like bathing, diaper-changing, or other interactions with the baby, and will feed breast milk that is pumped if covering feeding times when the mother is at work or unavailable.; Some families defer part or all of the father's equal leave from paid work until after a child's breastfeeding is complete.
Employment and parental leave
Some couples seek reduced work schedules, such as 30-hour or 35-hour work weeks, while others will work full-time and outsource child care and house chores. If the care and/or chores are outsourced they are paid for by the parent outsourcing his or her share of the care and/or chores. Efforts are made to choose caretakers of the same gender as the parent outsourcing. In some families, relatives, such as grandfathers and/or grandmothers, may help, perhaps with one or two days of child care per week or more. Neighborhood cooperative child care, with parents of both sexes providing care, is another method used.
Legislation
Parental leave laws and government leave programs in various countries vary in whether they discriminate against or otherwise impede this type of family and parenting structure, or whether they seek to prevent discrimination against it. The funding methods for parental leave are sometimes discriminatory even if the leave is not in other respects.
Canada
In Canada, 35 weeks' parental leave is available to be divided between both parents as they choose. This leave is paid at 55% of the individual's regular earnings, up to a weekly maximum paid for by contributions into federal employment insurance (EI) program. Canada also provides for an additional 15 weeks of maternity leave for biological mothers, which is in addition to the 35 weeks of parental leave.
France
France has had a program for longer, heavily subsidized maternity leave for many years, and has recently added a shorter, heavily subsidized paternity leave and also allows two years' unpaid parental leave which can be divided between the parents however they wish. The parent on leave receives financial support from the State.
France's constitutional court also made a recent ruling that two-earner marriages were not entitled to relief from required tax subsidies to sole breadwinner marriages via income splitting.
Germany
The German State helps parents raise their children with generous parental allowance and parental leave benefits for parents of both genders. They are entitled to parental leave until their child turns three while retaining their jobs. Either parent has to give their employer a written notice in advance and can also choose to work part-time during this period. The employer cannot fire them during this period.
Malaysia
Maternity leave is usually fixed at two months post-partum, with no option of extending it. However, in the government, you may opt to take three months' post-partum leave (maternity), but on condition that you must not have more than 5 children (any child born after the 5th will only provide two months' post-partum leave). There is no recognition of paternity leave, but international companies/employers may have these. It is not a government rule for employers to allow paternity leave.
If mothers plan to take one year's leave after birth, it will be unpaid leave.
Sweden
In Sweden, föräldrapenning (parental pay) is given to parents that stay home from work to take care of children. To encourage shared parenting, there is a maximum number of days per parent so that each parent must take care of the child for at least 90 days to receive the full pay, 18.2% out of the total of 480 days.
United Kingdom
With regard to extended family carers, in the United Kingdom, a legal right to request flexible working patterns was opened to all employees who been for 26 weeks with a firm rather than being restricted to parents of children under 17, or under 18 if their child is disabled and "adults' carers". This "means grandparents could apply from April for flexible working to help look after grandchildren. Anyone taking total leave of six months or less over the period would be legally entitled to return to the same job. Employers are placed under a legal duty to consider requests in a "reasonable" manner."
In 2015 the United Kingdom transitioned from separate recognition of maternity leave and paternity leave in favor of parental leave, pursuant to which a child's parents may decide between themselves how to allocate between them 37 weeks' paid leave and 13 weeks' unpaid leave in the 50 weeks after a baby's birth. Employers will now have to agree any proposed pattern of time off and will retain the right to insist it be confined to a continuous block, with no more than two changes. Mothers also are required to take a nontransferable two weeks' paid leave at the time of the delivery (four weeks if the mother is a factory worker) and fathers get a nontransferable two week paid paternity leave. Fathers also get a nontransferable right to two days off, unpaid, to attend ante-natal appointments. The paid portion of the leave is paid for directly by the employer at the following rates for the 39 weeks: (a) the first 6 weeks—90% of their average weekly earnings (AWE) before tax and (b) the remaining 33 weeks—£136.78 or 90% of their AWE (whichever is lower). Tax and National Insurance need to be deducted from the leave payments. In announcing the changes in November 2013 Deputy Prime Minister Nicholas Clegg said "We want to create a fairer society that gives parents the flexibility to choose how they share care for their child in the first year after birth. We need to challenge the old-fashioned assumption that women will always be the parent that stays at home. Many fathers want that option too."
United States
In the United States, the Family Medical Leave Act, which applies to some employers, is sex-neutral and allows each parent 60 days' leave, which can be taken in staggered fashion with paid workdays. Except in the case of very high ranking employees, FMLA requires the employer to hold the employee's job or a similar one for his/her return from leave. FMLA is also unpaid (although health insurance plan participation stays in place) and so parents self-manage savings and financial issues associated with their leaves, unless one or both their employers has a plan for paid leave that is available or a state or local level paid family leave program is available.
Other tax and benefit programs in the United States including the Affordable Care Act's reproductive health and preventive care provisions, income taxation and benefits, Social Security taxation and benefits and Medicare taxation and benefits do discriminate against this type of family. Some state constitutions also discriminate. (See discussion below.)
California