Sep-Oct 2008

Women@Work: Maternity Leave

Latest Survey shows the Governement is wrong

National paid maternity leave scheme, is not middle class welfare. New data from a survey conducted by the University of Sydney has cast another light on the issue of paid maternity leave.

Maritime employers still have a long way to go to assist workers in balancing work and family.

The survey of over a thousand employees, aged 15 years and older, was conducted last December at the University of Sydney.

The results provide new information about all forms of parental leave in Australia, including maternity leave and paternity leave, both paid and unpaid.

Results show that women who are managers or professionals, work in a large organisation and earn more than $40,000 a year, are most likely to receive paid maternity leave.

This finding completely dispels the claim by Senator Nick Minchin, the Minister for Finance and Administration, that a legislated paid maternity leave scheme would just be 'middle class welfare'.

The survey also asked about the use of the twelve months unpaid maternity leave available to Australian employees, which the federal government often claims is a major benefit of the Australian system. Dr Baird said "The trouble is, most women don't or can't use the unpaid maternity leave option!" The survey found that only one-third of respondents took unpaid maternity leave on the birth of their last child. What do most women do when they have their first baby? Dr Baird suggests that without paid maternity leave, they just leave their jobs and don't return. They lose income, career opportunity and superannuation. Their employers, in turn, lose their skills, knowledge and loyalty.

Who does get parental leave in Australia?

The survey's results show that access to paid maternity leave is related to occupation, income, industry and size of employing organization.
Seventy percent of employees in education and government, and approximately fifty per cent in the health, utilities and the finance sectors have paid maternity leave.
Less than one-third of employees who work in property and business services, 28 per cent in hospitality and less than 20 per cent in agriculture and farming have paid maternity leave.

Furthermore, there is a strong connection with public sector employment. Two-thirds of employees in the public sector say they have paid maternity leave whereas just one-third in the private sector have paid maternity leave.

Paid maternity leave is also strongly associated with the size of the employing organisation and the employee's occupation.

The chances of having paid maternity leave increase dramatically, almost double, if an employee works for a large organization.
It is not surprising therefore to learn that access to paid maternity leave is also associated with income levels. 65 per cent in the $50,000-$69,000 group have paid maternity leave compared with only 30 per cent in the $20,000-$29,000 category.

Unpaid maternity leave

The survey is interesting because it asked respondents questions about their use of unpaid maternity leave.
The survey found that only 36 per cent of respondents took unpaid maternity leave on the birth of their youngest child.
Respondents whose earnings were higher were more likely to take unpaid maternity leave.

Paid paternity leave

Data from federal certified agreements show that the most common period of paid paternity leave in Australia is one week.
As with paid maternity leave, managers and professionals are most likely to have paid paternity leave, but unlike maternity leave, one in five associate professionals and production and transport workers are likely to have paid paternity leave.

Unpaid paternity leave

Interestingly, nearly 20 per cent of respondents took unpaid paternity leave, with not much variation according to income or organisation size.
Most of the men, however, who took unpaid paternity leave were employed in the public sector.
Baird says that paternity leave and parental leave will be significant issues for employers and workplaces to consider this year. And, as with paid maternity leave, the federal government will have to start addressing this issue more directly if Australia is serious about achieving a healthy work and family balance.

For Further details:
Dr Marian Baird
University of Sydney
Ph 0293516439, 0438167963
m.baird@econ.usyd.edu.au

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