Nursery World - Government urged to extend paternity leave to help close gender pay gap

Increasing paid paternity leave to six weeks could reduce the gender pay gap and help equalise men and women’s participation in the labour market, suggests new research.

There are calls to extend paternity leave to six weeks as well as increase the rate of pay, PHOTO: Adobe Stock

A new report from The Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP), Pregnant Then Screwed and Women in Data looks at the economic and health benefits of extending statutory paternity leave and pay in this country.

The UK currently has the least generous paternity leave entitlement in Europe. The statutory entitlement to paternity leave is two weeks and the weekly rate for paternity pay is £172 a week, which is 44 per cent of the national living wage.

‘Leave in the lurch: Paternity leave, gender equality and the UK economy’ includes findings from a new CPP analysis of OECD data, along with a YouGov survey of 2,136 adults on their opinion on paternity leave and the relationship between that and mental health.

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