Research confirms low uptake of shared parental leave

Research conducted by the Women’s Business Council and My Family Care has found that many employees are not taking advantage of Shared Parental Leave.

Shared Parental Leave allows employee parents (by birth or by adoption) choice and flexibility in the early stages of their child’s life, enabling them to share what would traditionally have been the mother’s maternity leave. The system replaces that of Additional Paternity Leave and allows a total of 52 weeks’ leave to be split between parents.

The research found that just 1% of male employees had taken advantage of shared parental leave. Of mothers questioned, 55% said that they would not want to share their leave with their partners and of employees questioned generally, 80% said that a decision of whether leave should be shared would depend on finances and whether their employer would pay more than the statutory minimum. Almost half of the businesses asked confirmed that they offered an increase on the statutory minimum in line with what they offered for those taking maternity leave.

Another outcome of the research was that it is clear that there are concerns amongst employees over career progression and amongst men in particular, a concern that shared leave would be perceived negatively.