Salaries especially for specialist jobs tend to be quite a bit lower in Germany (as is the case in Canada) than in countries like the U.S. or Switzerland which have much less generous parental leave, though. Of course, parental leave is just one variable here, but in a way this is the obvious trade-off: You can have more parental leave and lower salaries, or less parental leave and higher salaries. (The same is true for all other non-monetary benefits of a job such as job protection etc.) On a country-level, both options can work equally well.

Me, personally, I would pick the "more parental leave and lower salaries", but I get that other people might feel differently.

(Edit: This cuts the other way around, too, by the way. Often people in Germany will complain that people across the border in Switzerland -- or in Silicon Valley -- will earn much more, but they ignore that working days are longer, with less vacation time, less parental leave etc.)

14 months total if both parents participate and split the time. In practice this is an incentive for men to take part because the couple gains an additional two months of paid leave. I don't have any numbers but from personal experience I'd assume that it works.

14 in fact!

google target salden... we are at the verge of a collapse...