Give dads more pay and paternity leave to fight gender gap, MPs demand 

Working mothers' protest
Better paternity rights would help new fathers and simultaneously remove some of the expectation that women must be the ones to stay at home with the children, MPs said Credit: Wiktor Szymanowicz /Barcroft Images

Poor paternity pay and leave rights too often force new fathers to go back to work while pushing mothers to stay at home for longer, undermining the drive for gender equality, a major new report from MPs has warned.

Fathers increasingly want to share more of the childcare duties, the Women and Equalities Committee found, but are unable to take part because policies focus on maternity rights.

“The evidence is clear – an increasing number of fathers want to take a more equal share of childcare when their children are young but current policies do not support them in doing so. There is a historical lack of support for men in this area, and negative cultural assumptions about gender roles persist,” said committee chair Maria Miller.

“Effective policies around statutory paternity pay, parental leave and flexible working are all vital if we are to meet the needs of families and tackle the gender pay gap.”

Statutory paternity pay should rise to 90pc of the father’s pay, MPs said, rather than the current system which pays the lower of either £140.98 per week or 90pc of pay.

This would bring it closer to maternity pay of 90pc for six weeks.

The Government should consider a new policy of 12 weeks’ standalone fathers’ leave in the first year after birth, as so few men have taken up the current system of shared parental leave.

“The maternal transfer design of the current policy of shared parental leave and the low rate of pay militate against fathers, likely to be the higher earner, taking it up in significant numbers,” the report said.

MPs also want fathers to have the right to paternity leave from the first day of their employment, as mothers do. Currently more than one quarter of new fathers do not qualify for paternity leave, often because they are too new in their jobs.

The proposal to give fathers more money in an effort to boost overall equality may sound counter-intuitive, but MPs said it is a crucial step to embed the idea of equality in the workforce.

“Fathers taking greater responsibility for childcare, and thus enabling women to re-join the workplace, will ultimately contribute to reducing the gender pay gap,” the MPs said, adding that the Government has acknowledged this and should act to change the situation.

“This issue is therefore important not only for families, but for the economy.”

Campaigners said the changes are crucial to force employers to treat men and women equally.

“We are particularly pleased to see the committee recommend three months’ reserved ‘daddy leave’. This leave needs to be paid at a high enough rate so that dads can afford to take it,” said Sam Smethers at the Fawcett Society.

“When an employer thinks a man and a woman are equally as likely to take time off to look after the kids, we will begin to address one of the fundamental drivers of the gender pay gap”.

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