Becoming a parent is a major transition in a person’s working life. For many expectant and new parents, the excitement of becoming a father or mother is accompanied by worries about finances, as well as logistical challenges involved in juggling their new parenting role with work.
Latest figures show that the UK’s gender pay gap is now 14.9% – which is higher than the EU average (12.7%).
The UK’s parenting leave system is one
of the most gender-unequal in the developed world. Its structure – followed by
the vast majority of employers across the country – places responsibility for
looking after babies, for the entire first year of their lives, firmly in the
hands of mothers.
When Baz Price (pictured above) and his wife Laura decided that he should take shared parental leave to look after their baby when she arrived, they discovered that his employer, Powys County Council, only enhanced SPL to the level of statutory maternity pay (currently £151.97 or 90% of average weekly earnings – whichever is lower).
We have been invited by the House of Commons Petitions Committee, to feed into its exploration of whether or not to extend maternity leave for 3 months in response to the Covid-19 lockdown[1].
Jeremy Davies writes:
Parenting leave experts always knew that Shared Parental Leave (SPL) would disappoint. The international evidence is clear: if governments are serious about encouraging large numbers of fathers to take substantial periods of leave during the baby’s first year (as they should be if they are serious about tackling the gender pay gap and improving children’s outcomes), they need to do two things.