On Paternity Leave

It’s only once you’ve been through the thick of it that you can actually have an informed opinion on parental leave. As a (modern) father, who has tried to really do my part in raising my daughter (as opposed to a more traditional approach of “helping” the mother in raising the children), you could say I’ve developed some very strong opinions.

The fact that today, in the western world, you have countries where a mother is entitled to less than a full year of fully paid maternity leave is ridiculous. Unless she wishes otherwise, no mother should be forced back into work with a child under 1.

Fathers need to do their part too. And if they do, there is no fucking way they are going to be productive at their jobs for that first year. Ultimately, I think fathers should be entitled to that very same full year, as that is the only way they can do their part. (How much of their salary should be covered is a different discussion, and so is what percentage should be paid for by the Employer and the State).

In the meantime, they need to take all the parental leave they are entitled to (to do their part) and that needs to become normalised. As a society, I think that this is absolutely critical to make us more equal and to avoid women carrying it as a burden on their careers.

The money problem

In Ireland, the State only pays workers a welfare rate (274 EUR per week as of 2024) to any parent taking paternity leave. Employers can top up this amount, but they are not required to. This creates a problem for lower income jobs. Those are usually less competitive when it comes to salaries and benefits, and therefore they usually offer no such top up. This means that workers on a lower wage will be paid only the 274 EUR per week. If the mother is on maternity leave, this means that a father taking the paternity leave will put the family in a stressful financial situation, where they will most definitely have to rely on savings.

For a rich country like Ireland, this is, in my opinion, quite dismal.

Recently, a study actually came up in the news about this particular situation. The results are not surprising. It just proves the logical conclusion from the above, that money is a big factor in preventing parents from using their paternity leave entitlements, and that not using the paternity leave entitlements places a higher burden on mothers, forcing them to take longer leaves and reinforcing the gender gap.

Only half of fathers taking paternity leave, report says

Only half of fathers are taking their paternity leave entitlements, according to research published by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The research found that income-related concerns were often cited as a factor, as well as the flat-rate nature of payments, particularly for those on higher incomes not getting an employer top-up.

Paternity and parent’s leave for fathers in Ireland are both lower than the OECD average, and paternity leave is significantly shorter than maternity leave in Ireland.

The report says large gender gaps in leave allowances have led to a more traditional gender division of labour in the household. It suggests that longer leave for fathers would likely result in a more equal division of childcare and housework duties.