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Why supporting paternity leave makes smart business sense

The Government needs to legislate for employers to provide a payment top-up to make the additional two weeks paternity leave an option for families, writes Christopher Paye.

THIS WEEK SAW Minister Paschal Donohue TD deliver the Government’s Budget 2019, announcing a two-week extension to current paid parental leave allowances.
The development is welcome news for new parents up and down the country juggling the excitement and responsibilities of a new-born with the demands of the modern workplace.

However, the success or failure of this initiative will ultimately be dictated by employers and their willingness to back the measure.

Many smart employers already recognise the value of looking after expectant parents. They see it as an opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to their employees and their desire to keep them within the organisation in the long term. For these companies, this two-week extension is the Government playing catch-up.

For employers who don’t fall into this camp, this is the Government’s way of saying it is time to fall into line and start providing meaningful parental leave for their employees. Or to be more specific, it is time to unpick the stigma of men taking their full allocation of paternity leave.

A new phenomenon

Paternity leave is still a very new phenomenon in Ireland. The current two-week allowance first came into effect in September 2016. 

A modest 27,000 fathers availed of the time off in the first 12 months, despite there being in excess of 62,000 new births in Ireland during this time. This represents less than 70% of the total number of mothers who availed of maternity leave during the same period.

Last year, Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty TD expressed her concern at the low uptake of paternity leave:

I think there is something in the culture in our society that expects women to stay at home; that is not the case anymore. There are men who want to stay at home and bond with their families.

So why didn’t more dads jump at the opportunity to spend more time with their newborns?

While paternity leave is now a standard employment benefit, many employers do not offer an additional top-up on the paternity benefit payment of €235 per week. So, if a dad wants to take his full allocation of paternity leave, this means his family is likely to take a pay cut at a time of additional cost.

Perhaps Ireland could take some guidance from Sweden, which is known for offering one of the most generous parental leave packages in the world. Parents of both sexes are entitled to 480 days (16 months) of paid parental leave at about 80% of their salary with one clause: the leave must be shared between both parents.

If Government wants to see a successful uptake in the extended parental leave, then they will need to consider legislating for employers to provide a payment top-up to make the additional two weeks leave a viable option for Irish families.

Tech industry leads the way

The government could also learn from the tech industry, as one of the first sectors to really embrace the benefits of generous parental leave. Famously, Mark Zuckerberg took two months’ paternity leave after the birth of his first daughter in 2015 and then proceeded to take two separate months’ paternity leave after the birth of his second daughter in 2017. In doing so, Zuckerberg was making an emphatic statement about Facebook’s employer culture and was widely lauded for helping to remove the stigma of paternity leave.

Google is another tech giant bearing the fruit of these flexible workplace practices. By introducing a more liberal parental leave policy, it halved the rate at which recent mothers were leaving the organisation. Accenture also recorded a 40% decrease in new mothers leaving upon doubling its leave allowances for new parents.

Their employer strategies would suggest that by providing parents with adequate parental leave and flexibility, they are more likely to thrive upon their return to work. This is every bit as applicable to Irish SMEs as it is to global tech firms.

While this may feel anathema to many Irish SMEs, in the long run, it will likely prove more cost-effective. The cost of having a parent out of the office for an extended period of time appears less costly when offset against the value of retaining that person and avoiding the cost of finding and training a new hire.

End of the marriage bar

It’s only 45 years since the marriage bar was removed in Ireland. When it was introduced in 1933, the State wanted to shape an Ireland where the roles of men and women were cast in stone, with men the breadwinners and women the homemakers.

The policy’s removal in 1973 was a belated acknowledgement that such a vision was no longer relevant nor desirable. Even so, many women and men still feel constrained by traditional gender roles. More paternity leave will help to alleviate this but, ultimately, it will be up to private companies to reflect emerging societal changes by embracing and encouraging its use. Those that do stand to benefit from improved staff morale, an enhanced ability to attract talent, and a reputation for innovation and leadership.

Christopher Paye is General Manager of Jobs.ie.

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    Mute Daniel Murray
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    Oct 12th 2018, 7:15 AM

    It’s not two weeks added to Paternal Leave, it’s two weeks added to Paternity Leave. The both are very different and shouldn’t be confused. Paternal leave is 26 weeks unpaid leave to a parent of a child under a certain age.

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    Mute Stuart
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    Oct 12th 2018, 7:25 AM

    @Daniel Murray: parental*

    I think the wording of Paschal was poor. When he said “2 paid weeks added to parental leave” he meant to say “2 additional weeks added to the paid portion of both maternity and paternity leave”.

    Well overdue. 2 weeks is not enough to support neither child nor mother. There is a well documented guilt of mother’s returning to work after 6/9/12 months but this is also very acute for many fathers whose partner’s physical and emotional wounds are yet to heal. All leave post childbirth should allowed to be shared and should be decided within the family as to who best to take the leave and when.

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    Mute Susie Hughes
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    Oct 12th 2018, 7:32 AM

    @Daniel Murray: parental leave now includes 2 weeks paid for both parents (well from Nov 2019), paternity is 2 weeks paid by Social Welfare as maternity is. It is up to individual employers to top up or not.

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    Mute Julie M Carroll
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    Oct 12th 2018, 7:34 AM

    @Daniel Murray: nope. It is two weeks extra parental leave. (In addition to the 18 weeks unpaid parental leave entitlement both parents have available to take up until the child is 8) Both parents are eligible. This isn’t just for men or non-primary care givers. The article just doesn’t position it correctly.

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    Mute Donncha Ó Coileáin
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    Oct 12th 2018, 12:49 PM

    The Swedish way of allowing it to be divided out between the mother and father makes a lot of sense in helping women to progress in their careers too. Plus, the simple logic is that they know what is best for their own families, better than any politician or civil servant in Dublin or Stockholm ever will.

    Here in Sweden, the dad must take his paternity leave or the portion allocated solely to him is simply lost. A period of 90 days is reserved for each parent. The mother can take 90 and the dad can take 390, or vice versa. Reserving those 90 days for one parent means they take it, and employers make it work.

    I’ve been living here over five years, and my male colleagues are just as likely as my female colleagues to be out for 3, 6, 12 months or more. In a situation like this, you’re far, far less likely to have management overlooking a woman for a promotion than a man, since they’re both just as likely to be off anyway.

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    Mute niamh ryan
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    Oct 12th 2018, 1:23 PM

    @Donncha Ó Coileáin: so the woman only gets 90 days?

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    Mute Waltzing Matilda
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    Oct 13th 2018, 9:10 AM

    @niamh ryan: The parents can share it whichever way they want, but a minimum of 90 days must be taken by either, or it is simply lost as it is non transferable.

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    Mute walkinggoldfish
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    Oct 12th 2018, 3:19 PM

    Maternity benefits in Ireland are approx 1000 euro per month (feel free to correct me if I am misinformed). My rent isn’t too far off that. There is no legal requirement for companies in Ireland to pay anything on top of this benefit. Having a flat rate rather than a per cent of your wage is totally illogical.

    Sweden have the right idea to have the option for men and women to split the benefits so employers can see it equally ‘detrimental’ to their business for men and women to have children rather than just pointing the finger at us women. As it stands, similar to just about every working person in this country, I’d be better off quitting my job, claiming my free house and then starting a family.

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    Mute Rebecca Palmer
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    Oct 12th 2018, 7:39 PM

    I can’t believe how far behind Ireland is in supporting families with children. Chains women in the home. A very small step but in the right direction.

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