ÖDP on families

The ÖDP wants to introduce a salary for people who raise children or care for relatives within the family. The platform argues that this work is a service to society without which the welfare system would collapse.

The ÖDP wants to pay a salary to parents and to people who care for relatives. They do work for all of society. Without this work the welfare system would not function. So they should get money for it.

The ÖDP wants child-rearing and care work done at home to be fully recognized. People who care for relatives or neighbors should have lasting and comprehensive financial security. The platform criticizes profit-seeking in professional elder and nursing care and the lack of sector-wide wage agreements. Public funding should be guided by the common good and ecology rather than profit, and care professions should be reassessed on that basis.

The ÖDP wants to pay parents a wage for raising their children and introduce a basic income for children to cover material costs. Parents would decide for themselves whether to keep the money or use it to pay for childcare of their choice. In the program's view, today's welfare system disadvantages families because it undervalues the work of raising children.

The ÖDP wants to pay parents for raising children. Parents should get a wage for this. They can also use it to pay for daycare. Every child should also get a basic income. The ÖDP says: raising children is work for all of society.

The parenting wage would replace today's Elterngeld (parental allowance), which is designed as a wage replacement; the state would no longer fund only daycare centers. People caring for relatives at home would receive an appropriate caregiving salary. Parents are to be treated more fairly on pension contributions, since only children make the pay-as-you-go pension possible. Family care work is to be put fully on par with paid employment in terms of pay and retirement provision, along with a duty to rehire people after caregiving periods. The program also calls for better staff-to-child ratios in public childcare and effective enforcement of equal pay for women and men.