The latest survey undertaken by British Social Attitudes has found that only 40% felt that mothers should take the lion’s share of the paid parental leave. This is a smaller percentage than in previous years.
In comparison, 34% supported equally shared parental leave. This was up from 22% per cent in 2012 – whilst only 12% felt that the mother should take the entire period. Less than 0.5% supported the father taking most or all of the paid leave.
These figures were compiled by the National Centre of Social Research - who warned:
“The fact that only one-third support an equal division of leave suggests that the default path prior to the introduction of SPL, for the mother to take all of the leave, may still be exerting some influence on attitudes.”
Dr Jill Miller - Diversity and Inclusion Adviser at the CIPD - stated:
“The take-up of shared parental leave remains low and requires concerted effort from employers to promote it as an option – and from government to identify and address the sticking points. Employers need to think more creatively about the types of flexible working they offer to retain talented people and ensure it is available at all levels of seniority. Otherwise the ‘sticky floor’ comes into play where people feel unable to progress without work-life balance support.”
She added:
“HR needs to be analysing workforce data to see what is happening in their organisation, and address any issues to give employees more choice over how they split childcare responsibilities.”
The Court of Appeal recently ruled that it is not discriminatory for employers to enhance maternity pay while only offering statutory pay to workers on shared parental leave.
The court upheld a previous ruling that the employers concerned were allowed to offer enhanced maternity pay without the need to provide the same benefits through SPL. The judges ruled that the main purpose of maternity leave - of whatever length - was not about childcare but for the mother to recover from the birth, which was not a need shared by her partner. Therefore, it is not discriminatory to offer more generous maternity leave.
Beverley Sunderland - Managing Director of Crossland Employment Solicitors - remarked:
“If the court had held that statutory paternity pay should be enhanced for men then the likely outcome would have been companies withdrawing enhanced maternity pay, so that they did not have to match it.”
She added that while the decision may not have appeared fair to some, the decision will be welcomed by employers that pay higher rates to women on maternity leave than to parents on different types of family leave - and it’s also good news for women.
Jenny Arrowsmith - Employment Partner at Irwin Mitchell - stated:
“Had the decision gone the other way, employers may have reduced their maternity pay to statutory rates because they could not afford to equalise pay rates to those taking shared parental leave.”
