Paid Parental Leave will:
- Promote the health and wellbeing of new mothers and their babies
- Encourage female workplace attachment
- Promote gender equity and equity within families
Paid Parental Leave can improve health outcomes by giving babies the best possible start in life and mothers the time they need to recover from childbirth, establish healthy routines and give breastfeeding a proper go.
It can also minimise the financial stress many families with new babies face following the loss of one parent’s income.
A survey carried out for the Department of Labour in 1996 identified that a number of women who return to work after having a baby did so in less than 12 weeks. Financial reasons, and in some instances career pressure, were given as the likely reasons for such a speedy return to work.
It also concluded that the low uptake of unpaid parental leave by fathers suggests that gender equity outcomes sought by the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act have not been achieved at all.
Some employees have employment agreements that provide for PPL, but these entitlements are unlikely to exist for low-income working families. That’s why the government opted to offer low-income mothers 100 per cent income replacement for 12 weeks on the birth or adoption of a child.
This will mean low-income workers will have the fullest opportunity to take the leave available and not return to work in those first 12 weeks.
