Paternity & Shared Parental Leave for the self-employed
Overview
2 weeks paid paternity leave was introduced for employees in 2003, but c. 100,000 self-employed fathers (TUC) remain ineligible for any paid paternity, shared parental, or adoption leave, and are not covered by the initial changes proposed in the New Deal for Working People.
Policy Proposal
Paternity Leave, Shared Parental Leave and Adoption Leave for self-employed workers should be paid at similar levels to the statutory minimum for employees, as is already the case with Maternity Allowance.
Self-employed paternity leave
Parental Pay Equality research of over 1000 respondents from 2023 showed that:
- 62% of self-employed fathers took no paternity leave at all.
- 33% took unpaid leave.
- 29% got into dept while on leave
Benefits
A 2010 study by Elly-Ann Johansson (Lindstrom) shows the beneficial impact of fathers taking parental leave on the mothers salary – for every one month of fathers parental leave the mothers salary goes up by 6.7%.
A study by HR Magazine that shows women are more likely to progress when fathers share childcare and work more flexibly: The survey of 773 UK working fathers found that where men played an equal or main caregiver role in childcare 47% of female partners had progressed their careers since having children. However, when men played very little or a moderate role in childcare only 26% of female partners had progressed their careers after childbirth.
About Parental Pay Equality
Parental Pay Equality is a campaign group set up in 2017 by sound engineer, Olga FitzRoy, with support from UK Music, Music Producers Guild, Musicians Union and Equity. The organsiationcampaigns for self-employed people to be given equal rights to paid shared parental, paternity and adoption leave. In 2018 they worked closely with Tracy Brabin on the #Selfieleave private members’ bill to give shared parental leave to the self-employed.