Father’s Day, or father’s six weeks? Well, how about father’s six months?
Maternity Action
Provides info, advice & training on maternity rights in employment, benefits & access to healthcare & influences policy.
by Richard Dunstan, Maternity Action Policy Officer
Somewhat predictably, some campaigners used last month’s Father’s Day to (re)issue a call for the introduction of six weeks of statutory paternity leave, paid – as the first six weeks of statutory maternity leave is now – at 90% of average earnings.
With the latest HMRC data confirming that just 8,632 (a mere 2.1%) of the 404,000 women who started on statutory maternity leave in 2021/22 used the Shared Parental Leave scheme introduced in 2015 to transfer some of that paid leave to the child’s father, it has long been clear that urgent reform of our parental leave system is needed if we are to see a societal shift towards more equal parenting. And facilitating and encouraging such a shift is essential to tackling the endemic pregnancy and maternity discrimination in our workplaces, and to ending the Gender Pay Gap, much of which is due to?the ‘motherhood penalty’.
However, it is hard to believe that a mere six weeks of paid paternity leave – just four weeks more than now – would be a game changer, even if paid at 90% of earnings (a move that would cost up to ￡1.3 billion per year, depending on take-up). If we are to make a significant move towards more equal parenting, we need to be thinking far more ambitiously. In short, we need to be thinking about putting?parental?leave – as distinct from maternity and paternity leave, which are both health and safety measures – on an equal footing.
Pregnancy and childbirth are not equal endeavours on the part of two parents. Unlike fathers and other second parents, birth mothers need paid time off work to recover from the often severe physical and mental impacts of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.
Similarly,?paternity?leave is also a health and safety measure, aimed at enabling the father or other second parent to support the mother at and immediately after the birth. Becoming a new mother is?literally?dangerous (especially for black women, who are?four times more likely to die during pregnancy?than white women). Becoming a new father, not so much.
Parental?leave, however, is about?parenting. And both the?research evidence?and the?experience of other countries?indicate that providing lengthy periods of paid?parental?leave for fathers?–?as opposed to more?paternity?leave tied to the period immediately after the child’s birth, when of course the birth mother is also off work?–?is?more likely to incentivise men to take periods of solo leave for?childcare?reasons, and then to take a more equal part in parenting over the lifetime of the child. Furthermore, sharing the care of the child in the first 12 to 18 months enables?both?parents to retain a strong link with the labour market.
Accordingly, rather than simply extend the existing entitlement to?paternity?leave linked to the time of birth, we need to scrap and replace the chronically failing Shared Parental Leave scheme with a new legal framework providing fathers and other second parents with a?substantial?entitlement to paid?parental?leave, to use at a time (or times) of their choosing in the 18-month period after their child’s birth.
At least three different models for replacing the Shared Parental Leave scheme have been put forward. The Fabian Society and Centre for Social Justice have?proposed?a model largely based on Sweden’s system of parental leave. However, the UK lacks Sweden’s essential social infrastructure, and it cannot be assumed that a system that works in Sweden would produce good results in the UK, where pregnancy and maternity discrimination and other poor practice by employers is deeply entrenched. Most crucially, in Sweden parental pay is administered directly by the governmental Social Insurance Agency, rather than by employers, the cost of state-subsidised childcare is capped at a fraction of the average cost in the UK, and all children have a place in a nursery school from the age of 12 months.
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The TUC has?proposed?a system of 52 weeks of paid parental leave for each parent, paid at the real living wage, of which 14 weeks would be?mandatory?for mothers and six weeks?mandatory?for fathers (and other second parents). However, the mandatory elements of this model mean it would cost?a minimum?of ￡9 billion per year and – depending on take-up by fathers and other second parents – as much as ￡16.3 billion per year. The current total annual spend on statutory maternity and other parental pay is just ￡2.6 billion.
Given the current, ludicrously low basic rate of statutory maternity and parental pay – just ￡156.66 per week, equivalent to less than half of the legal minimum wage – there is simply no cost-free or even ‘cheap’ means of increasing take-up and facilitating more equal parenting. The challenge, therefore, is to devise a model that substantially enhances provision for?fathers?while protecting the?existing?rights of?mothers, and which is capable of being introduced?incrementally?over a period of years, rather than overnight.
To this end – and recognising the fact that pregnancy and childbirth are not equal endeavours on the part of the birth mother and father or other second parent – Maternity Action has?proposed?a model consisting of six months of paid?maternity?leave reserved for mothers, and six months of non-transferable paid?parental?leave?for each parent, with all paid leave other than the first six weeks of maternity leave being paid at a rate equivalent to the legal minimum wage (i.e. more than double the current rate).
Once fully implemented, this model would provide new fathers and other second parents with their own right to 26 weeks of statutory paid parental leave (26 weeks more than now), and birth mothers with a total 52 weeks of paid maternity and parental leave (13 weeks more than now, bringing the UK closer to the OECD and EU averages of 51.5 weeks and 63.5 weeks respectively). The existing statutory right to two weeks of paid?paternity?leave at or soon after the birth would continue.
However, the model could be implemented in two stages, with only 13 weeks of the?parental?leave entitlement being?paid, and the other 13 weeks being?unpaid, in Stage One. This would still provide new fathers and other second parents with a significant new entitlement to 13 weeks of paid parental leave, plus 13 weeks of unpaid parental leave, while retaining new mothers’ current entitlement to 39 weeks of paid leave, and 13 weeks of?unpaid?leave.
Assuming 90% take-up of the?additional?entitlement to paid leave by mothers, and 50% take-up of an average of three months of paid parental leave by fathers and other second parents,?full?implementation of both stages of this model would add ￡5.5 billion to the current total annual spend of ￡2.6 billion. But this implementation, including gradually raising the basic rate of pay to parity with the legal minimum wage, could feasibly be spread over five, 10 or even 15 years. And, in year one, without any increase in the basic rate of pay, introduction of the Stage One entitlement for fathers and other second parents of 13 weeks of paid parental leave would cost just ￡50-200 million, depending on take-up
Sadly, there is little sign of politicians being willing to grasp this nettle. We are still waiting for the outcome of a review of the Shared Parental Leave scheme that ministers began more than four years ago, in April 2018. And the Labour Party’s September 2021?Green Paper on employment rights?simply promised yet another review. This needs to change.