In recent years, the collective experience of the pandemic has had many far-reaching and, arguably, unexpected consequences for our daily lives. Perhaps most notable of these is the headline-grabbing debate around work-life balance. Whether this takes shape as the home vs. office power struggle of CEOs and their workforces, the growing support for a four-day week, or the hash-tag-fuelled trend of quiet quitting, there has been a more vocal assertion that a fair work-life balance is expected.
However, paid parental leave is one aspect that predates the virus and has, by comparison, flown under the radar. Australia still lags behind its OECD counterparts, where the average paid leave is 61 weeks. While recent legislative change has improved matters, the shared twenty weeks offered to Australian parents pales compared to Sweden, where each parent is entitled to 34 weeks, with the flexibility to transfer 180 days between them.
While increasing the weeks offered to Australian families, changes in government-paid support have sought to make the sharing of parental leave more equitable for men and women. Yet, the latest data from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows that, when it comes to employer-provisioned leave, it’s a different story. Half of the organisations in male-dominated industries don’t offer any form of paid carer’s leave, compared to just 1 in 4 within female-dominated industries. And even with increasing access to paid leave for fathers, only 12% of those who take it are men.
Addressing this disparity may intuitively seem like a good thing for organisations to do. But what are the benefits of offering new fathers more leave and creating a work culture where they feel they can take advantage of this without judgement?
Better for both father and child
Perhaps the most altruistic reason for organisations to consider this is demonstrated by the many benefits for both father and child. Dads who take greater responsibility in caring for their children are happier, report greater life satisfaction, and have improved physical and mental health over those with less involvement. Taking more than two weeks leave when a baby arrives also means fathers are more likely to be involved in child-raising tasks in the following years.
Studies show, the consequence for the child is that they have stronger cognitive development, reduced infant mortality, and benefit from lower parenting stress in the household.
Fairer for working women
The gender pay gap, unfortunately, persists in Australia, with women earning an average of just 87 cents for every dollar paid to a man. A contributing factor, as indicated by Australian data, is that a majority of women who take leave to care for a newborn subsequently endure lower wage growth. Increasing access to parental leave for men allows families more flexibility to share this responsibility in a way that best suits their circumstances. Also, it could be argued that if more men took extended parental leave, the career impact of this may be better recognised by organisations and more done to address the inequity currently endured by working mums.
Better outcomes for employers
While research supports the greater involvement of fathers and the benefits this brings to the family, if organisations are to improve the situation without government pressure, there needs to be a clear benefit to them – fortunately, there is. According to McKinsey & Co, fathers that take parental leave report feeling more motivated and consider staying in their organisation for longer. In fact, studies show that parenting perks may be more influential to staff loyalty than increased salary. With the increasing expectation of work-life balance, generous parental leave may also become more influential in attracting talent, particularly during periods of low unemployment. So, while some may consider more generous leave a cost to an employer, increased engagement, retention, and competitiveness for top talent may pay dividends for organisations.
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