Policy - Gender pay gap white paper

Policy - Gender pay gap white paper

IS THERE A GENDER GAP WHEN TAKING STATUTORY LEAVE OF ABSENCE?

Produced by the CIPP policy and research team

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CONTENTS

CIPP foreword

3

Introduction

4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6

Types of leave and pay available

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) Time off for family and dependents

Parental leave

Relevant court cases

7 7 8 9 9

Pedro Manuel Roca Álvarez v Sesa Start España ETT SA 

C-D v S-T ET/2505033/11 

Ali V Capita Customer Management Ltd

Hextall v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police

CIPP research

10

Approach

10 10 10 11 11 12 12 13

Results

Gender of employees covered by this report Proportion of employees taking sick leave

Number of employees taking maternity or paternity leave Proportion of employees taking adoption leave Proportion of employees taking shared parental leave Proportion of employees taking parental leave

Conclusions

14 15 16

Appendix A: Male v female by region Appendix B: Male v female by turnover

Appendix C: Portfolio Payroll article on Statutory Shared Parental Leave (SSHPL)

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CIPP | CRONER | PORTFOLIO PAYROLL

CIPP FOREWORD

To coincide with International Men’s Day on 19 November 2018, the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) conducted research to establish whether there is a ‘gender gap’ when it comes to taking statutory leave.

HELEN HARGREAVES MSc ChFCIPPdip ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF POLICY

International Men’s Day (http://internationalmensday.com/) was established in the UK to address issues relating to men’s mental health, including challenges

faced by men as parents, and to celebrate the positive value men bring to their families and communities. When Shared Parental Leave was introduced in 2015, it was hoped that it would tackle some of the challenges faced by men as parents, but there is still a long way to go as indicated by the results, which show that with the exception of Shared Parental Leave, women in the workplace are taking more statutory leave than men. This research uses findings from a survey representing responses from payroll professionals responsible for 20,827 workers in the UK, as well as looking at various court cases to establish whether there is a gender gap when it comes to taking statutory leave, and to explore the reasons why. Perhaps the reasons are not surprising when you consider that the introduction of maternity leave was not originally to care for the child as often thought, but instead for the mother to recover from childbirth. In Spain it was originally intended to enable breastfeeding, see Pedro Manuel Roca Alvarez v Sesa Espana EET SA on page eight. Whilst Shared Parental Leave moves us on from the original purpose of maternity leave, and fathers now have rights to Paternity Leave and Shared Parental Leave, it is still typically the mother who takes time off to care for children. Looking at the cases outlined within this paper, perhaps the reason for the low take up of statutory leave amongst men is due to financial reasons, outlining the gender pay gap and equal pay gap which is still prevalent. Perhaps the reasons are linked to ‘traditional’ views of childcare being the mother’s responsibility?

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IS THERE A GENDER GAP WHEN TAKING STATUTORY LEAVE OF ABSENCE?

INTRODUCTION

Research 1 conducted on behalf of the Government Equalities Office (GEO) has prompted the GEO to conclude that significant inequalities persist in the way that childcare responsibilities are divided up and shared, with women in the UK doing on average about twice as much childcare as men. Whilst there have been no official statistics released by the government on how many parents have taken Shared Parental Leave (SPL), a freedom of information request by law firm EMW showed that just 9,200 parents shared their leave in 2017-18, only 500 more than the year before. The GEO research found that, whilst financial factors (such as childcare costs and the parents’ relative income) played a role in determining child care responsibilities, many of the parents still adopted a model where the mother stayed at home or worked part-time while the father worked full-time.

With SPL available to both parents, regardless of gender, this research is exploring whether this apparent gender bias to parental leave is also evident in other types of statutory leave and pay.

1. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_>Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18

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