Berkeley Program in Law and Economics

This article analyzes the effects of the changes on the Brazilian legislation regarding maternity leave since the edition of the Federal Constitution of 1988. It also gives an overview of congressional acts about this theme so as to show whether Brazilian society tends to extend or reduce the time of the leave. To achieve this objective we make a parallel with foreign laws; analyze the impacts of the elevation of the leave from 12 weeks to 120 days and also the impacts of congressional acts on income and employment of women in this country. According to the literature available, the effects of an extended maternity leave are ambiguous for it raises the costs of employment but may also have positive impacts on salaries by preventing that women abandon their jobs every time they give birth and keeping those female human resources attached to companies.