8 countries doing paternity leave better than the UK

Tomorrow, the Labour government will unveil its much discussed Employment Rights Bill. New laws will give more rights and protections to employees, including a day one right to maternity leave and pay for expectant mothers.

But it takes two to Tango. Reforming maternity leave, and ignoring paternity risks sending the message that women are primarily responsible for childcare.

Both parents should have the opportunity to bond with their child and be involved in their care. Currently, UK dads get just ten days of paid Statutory Paternity Leave (SPL) to look after their newborn (although they can extend this using shared parental leave).

Jane van Zyl, CEO at Working Families, criticised the Bill earlier this year for displaying “no commitment to extending paternity leave to a level that makes leave affordable for all.”

Think low paternity leave is just a fact of life? Think again. Below are eight countries with bold SPL policies. We’ll explore each one in detail, to provide a convincing case for how the government might extend the upcoming Bill to improve paternity leave for UK dads.

1. Sweden: 55 weeks

Sweden has taken the bold step to combine its paternity and maternity packages into Parental Benefit. From this pool of leave, all parents in Sweden are legally entitled to a total of 480 paid days off work for the child’s first four years of life.

Each parent is entitled to an equal share of 240 days. They can trade up to 150 days of this leave between them, but each caregiver must take at least 90 days off. Both parents can also take up to 30 days of their leave allowance at the same time (also called ‘double days’).

For the first 390 days, most parents can claim benefits equivalent to 80% of their salaries, up to a monthly salary cap of around £3,590, making Sweden one of the best countries for state-funded parental policies globally. Plus, it has great meatballs.

2. Norway: 45 weeks

Under Norway’s ‘Parental Benefit’ laws, new dads can take up to 12 months of leave. This leave period can be taken flexibly and shared with the mother, giving households more control over who takes care of the baby, and who goes back to work.

Each parent must take up to 15 weeks of paid parental benefit, meaning Norwegian dads could realistically use a maximum of 37 weeks of paid parental benefit in total. They can also get eight weeks of separate paid paternity leave on top of this amount, and up to a year of leave once the initial 12 months has been exhausted (although this is unpaid).

Norway is also one of the best countries for maternity leave allowance, and its approach to paternity leave has had a big impact on parental duties. 90% of fathers now take at least 12 weeks’ paternity leave, compared to only 3% before the law was passed in 1993.

3. Finland: 33 weeks

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced major reforms for the country’s paternity leave allowance in 2020, after remarking that too few fathers were spending time with their children when they were young.

By scrapping maternity and paternity leave, and replacing it with ‘parental leave’, Finland increased the number of days off work permitted per parent to 6.6 months (164 days). Parents can swap 69 days of their quota, meaning dads could take a maximum of 33 weeks.

Pay is less generous than its Nordic neighbours such as Sweden, but Finland still pays 90% of income costs for annual earnings up to £56,390 for the first 16 days after a child’s birth (falling to 70% of income costs for the remaining time off).

4. Iceland: 26 weeks

Each new parent on the Nordic island has the right to six months of leave from work, with up to six weeks transferable between mum and dad. That means dads could take 26 weeks of leave when their sprog arrives, and the entire leave period is funded by the state.

Currently, the Icelandic government pledges to pay 80% of people’s average salaries, capped at 600 000 ISK (around £3,300) per month. Naturally, this has had a positive effect on participation rates among dads.

In both Sweden and Iceland, 90% of men take leave. Meanwhile, research by Pregnant then Screwed has found that just 63.7% of UK dads use any of their paternity leave allowance.

5. Spain: 16 weeks

Spanish papás enjoy some of the most generous paternity leave allowances in the world. Since 2021, statutory leave for new dads in Spain has been set at 16 weeks; equalling what mothers currently receive for maternity leave.

Fathers can also choose when they want to take the majority of the time off. They must take six weeks of that leave immediately after delivery, but the remaining 10 weeks can be taken at any point in the baby’s first year.

Spain is also (t)winning when it comes to multiple births. Paternity leave can be extended by two weeks if triplets or twins are born; an extra perk that is not available in the UK.

6. Netherlands: 6 weeks

Dutch dads are only entitled to one week of paternity leave within the first four weeks after their child has been born. But after this period is ended, they can also take up to five weeks of additional paternity leave within the first six months after birth.

This ‘add-on’ policy might seem less flexible than the parental benefits offered by Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. But it is designed to help working mothers return to work quicker, by allowing dads to sub in and take care of the care duties when mum feels ready.

Pay is also far more generous than in the SPL offered in the UK. The Netherlands government pledges it will cover 100% of your wages during the first week of leave, and 70% of their average weekly earnings for the remaining weeks off.

7. South Korea: 20 days

Most of these policies are now decades old, but it doesn’t mean that the UK government can’t act swiftly to change its paternity allowance. Earlier this year, South Korea doubled its paternity leave allowance to 20 days, trouncing the UK allowance of 10.

In addition, South Korea increased the maximum allowance for parents taking child care leave to £1,412 per month, or roughly £353 per week. That’s compared to Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), which is currently a maximum of £184.03 per week.

It’s not all a goodwill gesture. The South Korean government announced these measures in part to engineer a higher birth rate. South Korea’s total fertility rate is currently the world’s lowest, standing at 0.72 in 2023.

8. Japan: 20 days

Japan’s paternity leave is also known as Childcare Leave at Birth. It’s another relatively new law, and was only recognised in an update to the Childcare Leave and Family Care Leave Act in 2022. But the allowance has already surpassed the UK’s allotted time off for dads.

Fathers are able to take up to 20 days of Childcare Leave at Birth in the first eight weeks of their child’s birth. They can also take this time off in two, two-week instalments, which is much more flexible than in the UK.

UK dads can take between one and two weeks of leave under current laws, but this time must be taken in one block. If they choose to only use one week, the additional week is lost.

Baby steps to reform

The upcoming changes to maternity leave, due to be announced in this week’s Employment Rights Bill, are certainly to be celebrated. As a result of the changes, all women employees will be able to give notice for maternity leave on the first day of the job.

But even if mums and dads do take time off from work, they won’t be able to do so for long (and only some will be able to afford it). The UK is still miles behind other countries when it comes to paternity and maternity leave, as this article shows.

Leaders like Sweden and Iceland have scrapped paternity leave entirely, while countries such as Spain have brought the policy in-line with maternity laws. Until the UK is bold enough to do the same, it stands little chance of addressing the motherhood penalty.