The impact of the ‘motherhood penalty’

The gender pay gap is something that is never far away from the news, and the so-called ‘Motherhood Penalty’ is one facet of a wider, systemic problem. A study released in late 2019 by the University of Bristol of over 3,500 couples revealed that fewer than 30 percent of women return to self-employed status or full-time work after giving birth to a child. On the other hand, men were relatively unaffected, with 90 percent of them with similar working hours even as they became new fathers. 

So what is the Motherhood Penalty and how does it come about? It might be tempting to blame the disparity above on personal choice, but the reality is current laws in the UK make it almost unfeasible for men to take up the duty of care for their new-born children. 

Shared parental leave and UK law

It was back in 2015, during the days of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that the legislation for Shared Parental Leave and Statutory Shared Parental Pay were signed into law. The legislation may have been passed with the best intentions in mind — that of allowing new mums to share their maternity leave with new fathers — but there were two significant flaws in the reforms. 

One is that self-employed contractors and freelancers were curiously left out of the reforms, alienating the estimated 1.6 million women with self-employed status in the United Kingdom. The second significant flaw is that no legal requirement was put in place to compel British businesses to match paternity pay to the comparative levels of maternity pay that new mothers receive.

This second flaw is a problem because women receive what is called “enhanced pay” whenever they take maternity leave, whereas employed new fathers who opt for shared parental leave are paid whichever is the lowest amount between taking 90 percent of their earnings or a statutory amount of approximately £148 for 39 weeks. There is no legal requirement for British businesses to match the father’s pay in the same way that a new mother’s pay is enhanced. And so, most businesses simply don’t bother. A study by the Working Families charity found only 32 percent of businesses enhanced Shared Parental Leave payments for new fathers. 

Why don’t businesses enhance new fathers’ rate of pay? Aside from the lack of legal obligations, there is also the wider, societal gender-pay gap. Almost eight out of ten businesses pay men more than women. Therefore, enhancing pay for fathers would seemingly cost the business more money in outgoings.

The penalty in action

Because of their relative lack of spending power, enhancing pay for fathers is even less likely in smaller businesses. Another disturbing reality is the persistence of the viewpoint that career breaks — even if these “breaks” are to raise new-borns — is often looked upon unfavourably by hiring managers. This viewpoint is more common amongst SMEs who again may be wary about their limited spending power in comparison to the larger organisations. 

The perception is that having a break will render previous skills as obsolete is a common one, and such discrimination may even go as far as ruling out a woman from a position even if her only crime is to be of a child-bearing age. 

As for self-employed or freelance workers, because the duty of care for a child almost automatically falls on the woman due to the way the Shared Parental Leave pay works out, women end up taking a bloody nose for their career. One study by the Parental Pay Equality Campaign found that it takes at least two years for women to claw back up the earnings they were making prior to maternity leave. Mostly because self-employment has the extra stresses of networking and maintaining relationships. 

Then there is also the idea that by placing the duty of care on women as the default from the beginning, a positive-feedback loop is established. By which any subsequent issue with the child will also be expected to be the onus of the woman. For example, if a child is sick, then it will be the woman who will be expected to take the time off of work to tend to the child.

Overcoming the discrimination

One way of overcoming these difficulties would be to fairly provide both men and women with the opportunity to take some time off to invest in their children. If it becomes equally likely that a man will take parental leave, then the suspicions and prejudices directed at women should evaporate. 

Granting fair and equal paternity leave pay is also one way to send a message that men and women are actually equals. After all, it could be argued that the current orthodox of not enhancing parental pay and encouraging fathers to take parental leave is something that favours men over women. 

The ultimate challenge is to work to change the orthodoxy, and our mindsets about new fathers in the UK workforce and how they should take parental leave. They need to know that it is all right to take some time off — rewarding time spent rearing the next generation — without it hurting their careers. Once men are comfortable in the knowledge that this is possible, then no one’s career has to take a bloody nose. And while it may be true that not every woman will want to share her maternity leave, it should be known that they can, if need be.

About the author

This article was written by Thomas Owens of Dpack, a direct packaging and packaging solutions business located in Stockport, UK.