Stuff co.nz 1 August 2021
In New Zealand, men have no ring-fenced entitlement to paid parental leave. The 26 weeks of Government-mandated paid parental leave is tied to the birthing parent, considered by default the primary caregiver.
The secondary caregiver, usually the man, may be entitled to two weeks of unpaid parental leave.
While the woman can transfer some or all of her parental leave, Stuff has previously revealed just over 1 per cent of this is taken by men.
When Stuff asked the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) how many men took the unpaid parental leave, it said it did not keep track.
But a new study shows even this unpaid leave is inaccessible for many, with an analysis of 53,000 men finding more than a third of wage-earners did not qualify.
Men have to be attached to a “main employer” for 12 months to gain access to two weeks of unpaid leave. Researchers found more than a third of men didn’t meet these criteria. For Māori men, this rose to 44 per cent, compared to 42 per cent of Pasifika men and around 30 per cent of Pākehā and Asian.
This was particularly the case for men working in precarious industries like manual labour, many of whom were Māori and Pacific Islanders, or any contractors.
Low-income men were less likely to be able to afford time off around their babies’ birth, and often took only a few days off or worked through. Men on higher incomes were both more likely to qualify for unpaid parental leave – as their jobs were more secure – and be able to afford to cobble together annual leave to take the time off, or be supported by their employer’s leave policies. Yet an associated study found Māori and Pasifika men really wanted to spend time with their babies.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/gender-and-society/300370424/when-will-you-be-home-daddy-the-hardworking-fathers-struggling-to-see-their-babies
