People in Britain are having fewer children than ever, recent data has shown. As policy-makers continue to scratch their heads over the reasons why, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the UK has the worst statutory paternity leave in Europe. While this may not be the sole reason, a survey found this put parents off having more children.
In August, hundreds of parents took to the streets to protest for better paternity leave and flexible working rights. Fifty charities, unions and academics called on Andy Burnham to carry out a major overhaul of the parental leave system to make it financially viable to have a family in Britain.
As it stands, the UK currently offers only two statutory weeks of leave for new fathers, paid at £194 a week, which amounts to less than half of the national minimum wage. After six weeks, the statutory pay for mothers also falls to this same rate, of less than half the National Living Wage.
As a result, one in three UK fathers took no paternity leave after the birth of their child, research has found, and half of the families where the fathers did take paternity leave reported struggling financially afterwards.
A report by the charity Maternity Action found that 55 per cent of women on maternity leave say they borrowed money to cover their living costs.
In contrast, in countries such as Spain, fathers receive 16 weeks off work on full pay, while in Sweden, they get 34 weeks off on up to 80 per cent of their normal salary. Norway offers one of the most progressive parental leave systems in the world, allowing new mothers to take up to 59 weeks of maternity leave paid at an 80 per cent pay rate (or 49 weeks at full pay) and fathers are able to take 15 weeks fully paid or 19 weeks paid at 80 per cent. Whereas countries such as the US and New Zealand do not have any national statutory paid paternity leave.
Studies show time and time again that adequate parental leave matters. Not only boosting healthy development in children, economic security, more fulfilling family relationships, but also making parents and children happier.
The i Paper spoke to Brits who left the UK for Canada, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and the US about their experiences of parental leave in their new countries and how it impacted parenthood.
“In Finland, we shared 13 months of paid parental leave‘
Finland-raised Susanna, 29, works in marketing and runs Instagram account @helsinkimum. She met her Welsh partner Dan in the UK, and they later moved to Helsinki where they had their now three-year-old child.
In Finland, it’s not uncommon for dads to be home for longer than the minimum of three months (Photo: Dan and Susanna)“In Finland, parents share a pool of paid parental leave between them, around 13 months in total, with one parent being allowed a maximum of 10 months. The leave itself is a legal right through our social insurance system, so it’s the same for every family, regardless of who you work for, and the state pays around 70 per cent of your income. We allocated most of it to me; Dan was at home with us for the first three weeks, and later spent a full three-month summer at home with our little one whilst I returned to work.
The system allows families to balance the time off as they see fit, and 160 days each is a minimum amount both parents have to stay home for. It really helps both partners bond with the baby, and it takes a lot of the pressure off starting a family in the first place. There isn’t the extra layer of stress of wondering whether you can afford to be present for your own child. The first weeks we had at home together with the baby were more survival than bonding. I can’t imagine if Dan had only been at home with us for two weeks, as is usual for the UK.
In Finland, it’s not uncommon for dads to be home for longer than the minimum of three months. And at nine-months-old you can send your child to kindergarten full time, 8am-5pm, with the maximum payment of €335 (£288) a month. For families with low incomes, it’s completely free.”
“Québec rewards couples more evenly‘
Drew Smith, 40, grew up in Buckinghamshire and moved to Québec City in 2019 to be with his wife Fanny. He works as an IT project manager and they have two children, Nicole and Leon.
“Parental leave in Canada is managed provincially, and Québec has its own system that’s widely considered the most generous in the country.
In Québec, parents choose between two plans. We chose the most popular, where mothers get 18 weeks of maternity leave at 70 per cent of their salary and fathers or second parents get five weeks of paternity leave on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis – also at 70 per cent. There are up to 32 additional shareable parental weeks – seven at 70 per cent, the rest at 55 per cent – that couples split between them however works best. Fanny’s employer topped up her salary to 93 per cent for the full length of her leave, too, which made a real difference.
With our first child, Nicole, I hadn’t been in Québec long, so I made the choice to take only the five weeks of paternity leave I was entitled to. With our second Leon, Fanny ‘gave’ me eight of her shareable weeks, and because we split the leave that way, the province gave us four bonus weeks extra. Québec rewards couples who share the parental weeks more evenly. Altogether that gave me 13 weeks (five at 70 per cent of my salary and eight at 55 per cent).
Knowing it was culturally acceptable to take a longer leave really took the pressure off. I felt empowered in raising my children and it strengthened our bond. It also enforced my mindset that Fanny shouldn’t be shouldered with the main caregiving responsibilities as the kids grew older. The lack of paternity leave in the UK perpetuates the archaic mentality that child bearing and rearing is the birth mother’s responsibility.
Québec also has a subsidised daycare system: it costs $9.65 (£5.16) a day, regardless of family income. Between the leave and the daycare cost, the financial and logistical barriers to having a second or third child are dramatically lower here.”
‘In Austria, I was offered €1,000 to share it with my partner‘
Londoner Dominique van Werkhoven, 41, is a copywriter and co-founder of The Werks. She moved to the Netherlands in 2012 after marrying her Dutch partner Gideon, and gave birth to two children there, before moving to Vienna, Austria in 2020, where their third child was born. They have since moved back to the Netherlands.
“For both births in the Netherlands, I was employed full-time and maternity leave starts four weeks before the estimated due date and ends 12 weeks after the birthdate. At this point, many mothers return to work and babies go to a childminder or nursery.
Back when we had our first two kids, paternity leave was only five days in the Netherlands (it’s since been extended to five weeks) and my husband took two weeks of annual leave to extend it.
With our third child in Austria, I was self-employed and worried how that would work with maternity leave, but the provisions are so good there. I could choose between one or two years of paid maternity leave and, as a self-employed person, I qualified for “mutterschutz” (mother protection) which meant I got €72 per day for eight weeks before and eight weeks after delivery. Then my official one year mat leave began, paid at 80 per cent of my salary. It made a huge difference in helping me adjust to life as a family of five.
Dutch friends couldn’t believe I was off for that long – “Didn’t you get bored?” – whereas Austrians asked if I found it a shame that I had to go back to work so soon.
In Austria, there is also the option for the other parent to share the parental leave, but both parents can’t be off at the same time. The government even offers a bonus of around €1,000 if parents share leave. Our admin disorganisation meant we didn’t get round to applying for it, though.
Our newborn parenthood experience in Austria was so much more relaxed because neither of us had the fear that without getting back to work, we would send our family into financial ruin.”
“In the US, my husband got no paternity leave. I had to quit my job‘
Hannah, 36, from Bristol, works as an executive assistant at the head office of a transportation company and runs Instagram account @teabeforetantrums documenting life as a British mum in America
The variation from employer to employer here is staggering, some people receive full pay for three months, others receive absolutely nothing, says Hannah Bodle“My husband is American, works in tech, and after his job required him to return to the US, we chose Denver, Colorado. We’ve been there for three years now. I secured my job through remote interviews and started four months pregnant.
My employer offered no parental leave whatsoever. However Colorado has implemented a state-funded scheme called FAMLI leave which covers family leave and provides up to three months of partially paid leave at approximately 60 per cent of my salary. This is funded by taxpayers and is not provided by the employer directly, simply a benefit available to those who were working at the time of going on leave.
The variation from employer to employer here is staggering, some people receive full pay for three months, others receive absolutely nothing. It is marketed as a “benefit” when recruiting for roles which I find difficult to accept – in my view, adequate parental leave should be a basic human right. My husband received no paternity leave and used one week of his annual leave. There is no standardised shared leave system in the US and paternity leave is equally inconsistent.
After three months, I had a colicky baby, no nearby family support and my husband had already returned to work. We made the decision for me to quit my job and stay out of work for a further nine months. We were fortunate to be in a financial position where this was possible, however those nine additional months with no income had a significant impact on our finances. Had I received longer maternity leave or the option to return part time, I would not have had to quit.
For many new mothers, their partner is their primary and sometimes only support system, particularly in those early weeks. Removing that support during one of the most vulnerable periods of a person’s life can be genuinely dangerous.
Most of my friends and family back home in the UK who have had children took a minimum of nine months maternity leave, often 12, and received partial pay throughout. They were completely shocked by my situation and most say there’s no way they could’ve returned to work after just three months.”
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