It would cost $600 million but would return $900 million a year to the GDP thanks to increased workforce participation by mothers,“boosting the average mother’s lifetime earnings by $30,000”.
Both parents should be able to take government paid parental leave – paid at the minimum wage – alongside paid leave from their employer,the report argues,and fathers should no longer be required to negotiate unpaid leave from their employer to get government parental leave.
Parents would continue to be able to use their leave entitlements concurrently or separately,to best meet their family’s needs and sole parents would get the whole 26 weeks.
Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood said changes to the parental leave system have to be big enough to shift a culture based on women as carers.
“We think particularly when supercharged with the two weeks bonus leave (which requires fathers to use their basic six-week entitlement) is big enough to shift behaviour and start a cultural shift.
“When fathers are more involved in those early years ... and are feeling more engaged,they’re part of a caring culture around the child,and with every man who takes some leave it is easier for others to take leave,employers come to expect it and men are less likely to face a career penalty if they do it.”
Closer family engagement of fathers leads to greater life satisfaction for fathers as well as mothers,she said,and as more fathers take parental leave it is “more enjoyable because there are other dads[in playgroups and generally] on leave”.
“This is a circuit breaker that would shift a norm that makes it really hard for men who would like to,and would share care.”
Associate professor Elizabeth Hill,of the University of Sydney’s department of political economy,said her research shows young men want the opportunity to be more actively involved in their children’s care and that access to paid parental leave “is essential to their future success at work”.
“Paid parental leave policies that encourage and incentivise shared responsibility for care of children in the early years are critical to achieving gender equality at work and at home,” she said.
In countries where paid parental leave is provided as an individual entitlement on a “use it or lose it” system there is greater division of work at home and in employment and the status of care-giving is increased.
Father and safety and wellbeing manager Nick Duffy said the bonding time and chance to form routines with his daughters,Louella and Harriet,for whom he has both been carer thanks to paid parental leave policies at his employer,were two of the greatest things about being around in the girls’ first years.
“I think men have a responsibility to be involved at that point,it’s such an important thing and is just so enjoyable,” said Mr Duffy,who took 10 weeks’ leave each time. While some men tell him,“Oh,mate I just can’t do that”,due to the nature of their work,he wants fathers to understand what is at stake.
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“Having two kids,you only get two shots at it,you don’t get it again so you’ve got to have a crack. And if you don’t do it properly,on an individual level,what is the impact on the rest of the family? It’s your own opportunity but it’s also the impact you have on other people,the family dynamic,that you’ve got to consider.”
Transforming paid parental leave to be more inclusive of fathers “makes sense as a manager,it makes health sense and economic sense”.
Georgie Dent,executive director of The Parenthood,said the Grattan Institute’s proposal would help create patterns of shared care that would benefit the health of parents,children and families.
“If you have two parents who are meaningfully engaged carers who combine family and work,that’s the pattern that will persist over the long term,” she said.
“It is fantastic for children,they benefit from more engagement of fathers,and it’s better for women’s participation in paid work,their mental health and economic security.″
Prue Gilbert,CEO of the workplace gender equality consultancy Grace Papers,said Australia’s gender pay gap could be largely attributed to women reducing paid work to assume the lion’s share of the caring and household work.
“Together with affordable access to childcare,shared parental leave entitlements will have a direct impact on women’s workforce participation,women’s leadership and business performance. Importantly,such policies enable men to experience care ... which we know young dads especially are keen to participate in.
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