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12 Aug 2016
by Matt Scott

Trend update: The problem with shared parental leave

Shared parental leave was supposed to usher in a new era of gender equality in the workplace, giving new fathers the ability to take time off to care for their children, while at the same time allowing women to share the load of child care and focus more on their careers.

One year on from the launch of the initiative, however, and uptake is low.

Over the first three months of 2016 just 3,000 new parents were taking advantage of the shared parental leave initiative. This compares to 52,000 fathers and 155,000 mothers who took paternity and maternity leave over the same three month period in 2014. 80AC-1470747910_GraphsharedparentalleaveMAIN.jpg

Research from My Family Care found that more than four out of 10 employers had not seen a single new father employee take up the right to shared parental leave. Not exactly encouraging figures.

But why is uptake so low?

One of the reasons is a perceived negative impact on the careers of male workers – something women have been battling with for years.

The My Family Care survey found that 57% of new mothers and mothers-to-be believe that shared parental leave would negatively impact their partner’s career, while 50% of men have similar thoughts about the impact it may have on their own career.

The financial impact of taking shared parental leave is also a key factor in whether or not new parents take advantage of the new initiative, with over 80% of both men and women saying a decision on sharing parental leave depends on their finances and employer enhancement.

Maybe more equal pay in the workplace for the sexes would help alleviate this problem.

But with 87% of new fathers and fathers-to-be saying they wish they could take more time off to be fully involved in parenting their child, more needs to be done to promote the benefits of shared parental leave and promote the initiative in the workplace.

Research from TotalJobs.com found that almost two thirds (65%) of employees are not aware if their employer offers shared parental leave higher than the statutory level.

In fact, a lack of awareness is the third most important factor in preventing increased uptake of the initiative, just behind affordability and impact on careers.

This article was written by Matt Scott, REBA's tame actuary. 

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He safeguards the reward community from hours of online research, his superstrength is delivering the numerical  proof you need to make your reward business case.

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