Employer-paid Maternity Leave in Australia: A comparison of Uptake and Duration in 2005 and 2010

While the implementation of Australia’s Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme in January 2011 is expected to extend access to paid parental leave significantly, the program commenced in the context of regularly reported increases in the prevalence of employer-paid parental leave. The aims of this paper are to identify and explain changes in mothers’ use of employer-paid maternity leave over the five years prior to PPL. Our data come from broadly similar surveys conducted in 2005 and 2010. They show increasing uptake and duration of employer-paid maternity leave over this period, but marked and persistent inequalities in patterns of usage. We argue that inequalities are unsurprising in association with employer-provided entitlements, and that they will not necessarily be ameliorated with ongoing expansion of employer-paid provisions. Given its importance in the Australian context, employer-paid parental leave will need to be taken into account in assessing the impact of any government-initiated paid parental leave scheme.