5 reasons why paternity leave is essential to close the gender pay gap

22 Nov

As a female CEO, I am beyond passionate about ensuring women can succeed. And that means I’m also passionate about paternity leave. Meaningful paternity leave is not just a nice-to-have for men, it is fundamental to women getting equal pay. Here are my five reasons why…

At Opportunity Green we offer all new parents (yes, women and men) the right to a full year off from work, of which 26 weeks are paid at their full salary. This is an increase from our previous policy of three months’ paid leave. It was always the intention to revise our parental policies as we grew, and I’m delighted to now be in a place where we can do so.

In addition, all men must take at least three months of that leave (more on why below) and everyone continues to get their 10% employer-contributed pension during the entirety of their leave. There is a huge pension gap for women that this policy is designed to protect our employees from; an issue that is explored fully in Prospect’s report, What is the gender pension gap?

As Opportunity Green is a charity fighting climate change, I’m incredibly grateful to our funders who have enabled us to grow to a place where we are able to support our staff in this way and introduce policies like this. We need more diverse people in the climate fight, and Opportunity Green is actively working to make this a reality.

But before I write anything else I want to acknowledge that diversity is about much more than gender. While I know how to ensure brilliant women are enabled to succeed, I want to acknowledge that I hold privilege in many ways.

At Opportunity Green, we are always looking at what we can do to improve our wider diversity goals and we have implemented policies to do this, including blind hiring, always displaying salaries on job ads, and transparent salary scales. If you have suggestions of other things we can do to improve, please get in touch. We have an active Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Committee that is always keen to consider new ideas!

I also want to acknowledge that not every family is composed of a man and woman and I’m sure many of the things I address in this article may be even more difficult for those families.

I’ve written before about some of the overt discrimination I have faced in my career. Luckily, I do think things are, broadly, getting better. But much more needs to be done.

Today, November 22 2023, is UK Equal Pay Day, founded by The Fawcett Society. They say it “marks the day in the year when, based on the gender pay gap, women overall in the UK stop being paid compared to men.” And there’s a great need for a day like this to help raise awareness. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report says that at our current rate of progress, it will be another 131 years before we close the gender pay gap.

So, much like the fact that we need to speed up our efforts to tackle climate change, I’m all about how we speed up action on the gender pay gap. There are many things that can be done – but the most neglected issue, and the one that I’d say is still almost taboo to talk about – is paternity leave and pay. These are my five reasons why paternity leave is essential to close the gender pay gap:

1. It’s better for baby and mum

This blog is mostly about the parents, but the new baby shouldn’t be neglected either. Studies show that children with fathers who take paternity leave experience more positive social, behavioural, psychological and cognitive outcomes (pp.153–158). It should come as no surprise, if only because two sets of hands are surely better than one, especially in the early days.

Other studies show that men who take paternity leave have a closer bond with their child, which could lead to the father being better able to spot if something is off – and for that not to default to mum. In addition, research shows that paternity leave can mitigate maternal postpartum-depression outcomes (Volume 40, Number 6, pp. 360-64).

When you’re a new mum who’s just been through probably the most life-changing experience you can have, the two weeks you get with your partner at home to help doesn’t even scratch the surface. This can lead to feelings of loneliness, resentment, and difficulty adapting. Which is also why extended paternity leave can create stronger partnerships.

2. It encourages equal pay for women

It is illegal to discriminate against women in the job market. But unconscious bias can rapidly slip in. If, for example, two people in their early thirties are interviewing for the same job and one is a man and one is a woman, the interviewer will know that the likelihood of that woman taking leave for a year and a replacement having to be found is higher than for the man.

But we can change that scenario to remove the possibility of unconscious bias. Imagine a world where we looked at both candidates and it was equally likely that both would leave for at least six months when and if a baby comes. One study found that mothers’ incomes rose by 7% for every month a father spent at home on paternity leave. The countries that have the smallest gender pay gap, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, all have generous paternity leave policies and a culture that enables men to take that leave.

3. Dads benefit too

The studies show that dads are happier when they take paternity leave. In addition (and very interesting to me as a CEO with excellent staff who could double their salaries by moving to the private sector compared to working on climate change at a charity), dads felt a lot more positive about their employers after taking paternity leave.

4. There’s more equality in the “second shift”

So many studies show (here is one on ‘The consequences of fathers' quotas’ and here another on ‘Paternity leave taking and father engagement’) that paternity leave means men take a more active role in childcare and household management going forward. It makes sense – the first days, weeks and months of a child’s life is when the parental dynamic is first shaped. A year in, mums are the de facto go-to for endless rounds of nursery emails, doctors’ appointments, health visitors’ appointments; the list goes on. If the father isn’t involved at the start, recalibrating that balance later on is incredibly difficult – if not impossible.

We know that women are assumed to be the ones to do all the childcare and face a “motherhood penalty” when they return to work. Meanwhile studies show that fathers are more likely to get a promotion after having a child. Wouldn’t it be nice to spread those impacts a little more evenly?

5. Why should we get to decide who minds the baby?

Let me leave you with one final thought: why does the government effectively mandate that the woman must mind the baby? How discriminatory is that?

Statutory leave and pay are inadequate for both men and women (though it can be shared), leaving employers to fill the gap, which many do, but only for women. By only giving women access to meaningful paid leave, we are essentially determining how families across the world should be structured.

Maybe we should create a society and a world where families are enabled on an equal basis to decide what is right for them – rather than legislation and company policy meaning it can only be the mother minding the baby? Kind of sounds like a basic human right to me.

So what do you think? Are you a dad? Did you take paternity leave? What are your company's parental leave policies? Are you a CEO, HR professional or someone who can raise this issue in your company in some way? Is there something you can do in your work or personal life to help create a culture that supports and promotes taking paternity leave? Do you have any suggestions for what Opportunity Green can do better? Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know!