FNF Dev01 Sandbox - Finnish fathers get same parental leave as mothers

State support for paternity leave is £148.68 a week for two weeks. A gender 'pay gap' of 96%? The signal to dads is 'you are not valued'!

We were interviewed about parental leave by BBC World Service Radio's Newshour, pitched mostly for US and UK audiences. You can hear a brief clip of it here or the full interview here at 14 minutes in.

Finland has just announced an increase in parental leave, equalising entitlement of mothers and fathers. The decision was made by Finland's coalition of five parties, all led by women, who took the view that gender equality had to take a priority. Aino-Kaisa Ilona Pekonen, Finland's Minister for Social Affairs and Health, says that this is an "investment in the future of children and #wellbeing of families". She added that "sharing parent responsibilities in everyday life will become easier, and the relationship between both #parents and the child will be strengthened from the early childhood".

ACTION - If only our ministers were thinking along similar lines! It's high time Britain led the way in this respect. Please write to your MP and ask them to make representations to the minister. Please feel free to share any responses you get with us at admin@fnf.org.uk with 'Parental Leave' in the subject line. We will not publish identifiable information without your permission.

The Government started a consultation on this in July 2019. FNF made submissions supporting the extension of paternity leave. The Government report following the consultation has not yet been published so there may still be an opportunity to influence it.

MPs and ministers need to be reminded that in the UK we have one of the most generous maternity leave policies in the industrialised nations and amongst the least supportive of paternity leave. Parliament needs to understand that it's not because they don't want to care for their children more, but that the state pays lip service to supporting dads. Children that enjoy more equal care time with each parent do better on a range of wellbeing measures including mental health. Countries with more generous paternity leave also have the narrowest gender pay gaps. Imporantly, from our perspective, dads who are more involved early in children's lives and who spend time on their own caring for children are more likely enjoy better relationship stability and to continue to have a parenting relationship after family separation. In contries such as Finland and Sweden such policies have led to increases in joint parental care after separation of around 1% a year for some 40 years, whereas in the UK we've hardly moved forward and it is still widely considered normal for separating parents to fight over the children after separation instead of giving children the best of both parents.

As our press release on this (with links to more details) says, the welfare of children is best met by two parents whenever possible. The UK is at the top of world league tables for maternity leave entitlement whilst ranking near the bottom for paternity leave. This is not just a matter of gender equality, but rather of strengthening relationships between both parents and the child. Current policies of statutory maternity pay for up to 39 weeks contrast with just two weeks for fathers at just £148.68 per week. For a couple on average pay, there is a 96% gender pay gap in favour of mothers. Paternity leave must be properly funded and offered independently to each parent, on a 'use-it or lose-it' basis. We may not be ready for 7 months of parental leave for each parent, but two or three must be on the cards and would be a good start. Meanwhile, too many children are growing up without their fathers in their lives with an increased risk of delinquency and behavioural difficulties - especially if the parents show no respect for each other..

More Detail

Our reading of what Finland have announced is that parents will have an allowance of just under 7 months each (164 days). Of that, if one parent wishes to transfer their allowance to the other parent they can do so by 69 or up to 69 days.

Each parent will receive 164 days as an independent allowance to each (this equates to around 6.6 months, taking into account weekends, etc)
If they transferred the 60-day allowance to the other parent then one would get 233 days, the other 95 days (approx. 9.3 months and 3.8 months respectively)

The key thing is that the 95 days, almost 4 months, are not transferable and are independent. The parent must use it or lose it. This is the key reason for the failure of the UK's transferrable parental leave scheme, with a take-up rate estimated at under 5%. It is not offered independently, beyond the two under-funded weeks worth. If mum takes maternity leave, it is unlikely she will sacrifice that to the father in the early weeks and months of the child's life. If they each have their own independent allowance, they can each spend quality time bonding with the child and one supporting the other. Ideally, there needs to be some flexibility to assist families in determining what is best for them. Families should be able to decide whether to take some or all of the time together or for mum to go back to work and the other parent (usually, but not necessarily dad - in more diverse family arrangements) to then take care of the child, thus reducing the need for parents to use nurseries or childminders in the first year or so.

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