New Delhi: India has the second-largest gap in the world between the amount of parental leave available to mothers and fathers. According to a new report by global hiring and payroll platform Deel, 25% of Indian women leave their jobs within six months of the end of maternity leave. For men, the figure is 20%. However, this is lower than the global ratio: 30% of women and 23% of men leave their jobs within six months of the end of leave.
According to this report, mothers in India take an average of 130 working days, or about 26 weeks, of leave, while fathers take an average of just 7 days. Only the UK surpasses India in this regard, where the gap between mothers’ and fathers’ leave is 19.5 times, while in India, the gap is 18.6 times.
Deel’s report, titled “Generous Government Parental Leave Policies Don’t Guarantee Gender Equality,” analyzed data from nearly 5,000 parents across 12 major economies. It revealed that while parental leave policies may appear equitable and generous on paper, in reality, women and men don’t benefit equally.
Companies have the discretion to give leave to fathers
According to the report, the amount of parental leave available to fathers in India is entirely at the discretion of the employer. There is no mandatory legal provision for this. This is why Indian fathers take the least amount of parental leave among all the 12 countries included in the study. By comparison, fathers in Britain and Italy take an average of 10 days off, while in Canada and the United States, they take 28 days. In Sweden, this period is 67 days, and in Spain, it is 70 days. This means that American fathers take four times more leave than Indian men.
Mother gets relief
Mothers in India take an average of 130 working days of leave. This is equivalent to the 26 weeks of leave allowed under the Maternity Benefit Act. According to the report, 98.7% of mothers in India take their entire leave at one time, the highest among 12 countries. Meanwhile, 80.1% of fathers take their leave all at once.
Advantage of more leave in big companies
The study found company size to be the biggest factor determining leave duration. Women working in large companies receive an average of 80 days more leave than those in smaller companies. This difference persists across countries, demographics, and leave regulations. Globally, the financial impact of maternity leave is disproportionately greater for women. In the UK, women who take more than four months off receive less than half their normal salary.
Wage gap increases after the birth of a child
According to the report, the wage gap between men and women widens sharply after the birth of a child and persists for many years. In economics, this is known as the “child penalty.” Its impact has been observed across different industries, jobs, and countries. The report states that inequality in parental leave is one of the primary causes of this economic gap. Some research suggests that when fathers take more leave to care for children, mothers’ earnings may improve in the future.
The study covers Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US. However, the data is based on full-time employees on the Deel platform, so white-collar professionals, i.e., office workers, are overrepresented.
