4 things I've learnt from talking about maternity leave non-stop for 6 weeks

Just over a month ago, my co-founder Harriet Morton-Liddle and I launched the socials for our new business, Nugget Savings, with a mission to help parents build a financially secure parental leave.

The response we’ve had to our content has been overwhelming, with our TikTok videos alone receiving 820k + views and 1,175 comments. From talking about maternity leave non-stop for a month, here are some key things I’ve learnt:

1) Parental leave policies aren’t working in the UK. Just a cursory glance at the comments we are receiving from women on their maternity leave will give you a glimpse into the state of parental leave in the UK. There are literally hundreds of women (and it is largely women who respond to our content) who are struggling to survive in the cost of living crisis, on measly mat’ pay. There are also huge swathes of women who would love to go back to work, but can’t due to the cost of childcare, so are being forced out of the workplace. These are not groundbreaking or surprising discoveries; however, the outpouring of stories have made our mission visceral and urgent.

2) Good maternity/paternity policies are amazing PR for your business. Those who benefitted from fantastic maternity or paternity policies from their company were keen to tell others and share the great work their company was doing. Having a great parental leave scheme provides the obvious benefits of capturing the best talent in the job market and retaining talent post-birth, but it also creates a lot of good will towards your business and employees will often become your advocates.?

3) Language around parental leave is confusing. In order to deduce what payments you are likely to receive for your parental leave, there are a lot of jargon and acronyms to get your head around. There are also a lot of confusing ‘qualifying periods’ which have caused Harriet and I headaches in a) understanding b) then translating into more user friendly language. Is it necessary for maternity payments to be so convoluted?

4) Sexism plays a large part in discussions around parental leave. We have received some run of the mill misogny in the comments, but also more revealing myths have popped up which has been interesting to unpack. To name a few:

• Maternity pay is free money?
• The government can’t afford to pay more in statutory maternity pay?
• Women need to choose better employers?
• Pregnant women / mothers are a burden on businesses?

We have very much enjoyed tearing these assumptions apart, but that, alas, is for another post.

So! Six weeks in. It’s felt like much, much longer. But I am so grateful for these insights already, even if some of them are depressing. The depressing ones — I’m using as fuel for the long road ahead to change the landscape of maternity and paternity policy in the UK and beyond.

Follow along if this journey sounds interesting! Our first step is building a community (which if I say so myself we are currently nailing), you can find us on @nuggetsavings across Instagram and Tiktok. We will be seeking investment in the next few months.?

???????