UK paternity leave, limited and unequal

Summary

• Paternity pay offers weak income replacement for fathers — income replacement rates when taking up statutory paternity leave are around 33% for an employee father on a median income. For self-employed fathers, who have no entitlement to paid time off to care for newborns, replacement rates are effectively 0% of a previous week’s pay.
• This leaves the UK well below comparable international standards: OECD countries offer, on average, 8.1 weeks of leave at full pay for fathers.
• An employee father on a median income taking 2 weeks of leave experiences an income loss of £670, or 33% of monthly income. A self-employed father on a median income loses approximately £1,020 in the month they step out of work, representing an income loss of 50%.
• The cost of delivering parity between the employed and the self-employed here is small — it would cost between £6.8 million and £18.9 million million to extend paid paternity leave to self-employed fathers, with a likely benefit to women’s labour-market participation in those households if trends reflect the behaviour of employed couples.
• Our recommendation is a reform to paternity pay, offering 6 weeks of leave at a 90% replacement rate, capped at £1,200 for both employed and self-employed fathers.

Does paternity leave provide adequate income protection?

In the UK, taking paternity leave often comes with a significant loss of income, making a fundamental right difficult, or impossible, for many fathers to exercise. At just 2 weeks of leave paid at 90% of previous earnings or at a very low flat rate (£187.18/week), whichever is lower (only 42% of the National Living Wage), the UK’s statutory paternity leave entitlement is the least generous in Europe. A more generous and inclusive system would better support families’ financial security and enable more equal caregiving choices.

Women currently have significantly better access to income protection when caring for a newborn, despite more fathers taking on caring responsibilities. For employed women, Statutory Maternity Pay provides 90% of previous earnings for the first 6 weeks, followed by £187.18 per week or 90% of average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the remaining 33 weeks.

In addition, self-employed mothers may claim Maternity Allowance. The benefit, created in 1948, pays self-employed women £27 to £187.18 per week for up to 39 weeks, depending on prior contributions. By contrast, paternity leave provides only 2 weeks of low flat-rate pay and excludes the self-employed entirely. These structural differences translate into clear disparities in uptake: while 84% of mothers take statutory leave, only 63% of fathers do.¹

Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) is available only to employed fathers, leaving self-employed fathers with no income protection at all when taking time off to care for a newborn. As a result, around 72% of employed fathers take any time off when caring for a newborn, compared with just 16% of self-employed fathers, who take unpaid leave.² These patterns suggest that low take-up reflects financial constraints rather than fathers’ caregiving preferences. Self-employed fathers also face greater economic insecurity, as they are less likely to have savings to rely on, limiting their ability to absorb the income loss associated with taking time off.

Self-employed fathers face income shock when caring for newborns

Fathers who take paternity leave experience an immediate income shock from stepping out of work, and paternity pay is insufficient to allow fathers to provide a buffer during leave. As mentioned above, weekly income replacement rate for fathers in the UK is extremely low compared with OECD countries. The weekly replacement rate is around 49% for a low-earner employee father, 33% for a median earner, and 22% for a high earner. Self-employed fathers, regardless of how much they earn, have a replacement rate of 0%. This leaves the UK well below comparable international standards: OECD countries offer, on average, 8.1 weeks of leave at full pay for fathers.

When assessed over the course of a year, the income loss for employed fathers may appear modest, around a 2-3% reduction in annual earnings. For self-employed fathers, however, the loss is larger, at roughly 4%. Yet annual figures obscure the more immediate financial strain. Monthly income better captures the lived reality of paying rent, bills, and childcare costs, and reveals a much sharper short-term shock.

A low-earning employee father who takes 2 weeks of paternity leave loses approximately £350 in that month, around a quarter of his monthly income. A median earner loses about £670, equivalent to roughly one-third of monthly income, while a higher earner loses around £1,130, or close to 40%. For self-employed fathers, the impact is considerably more severe. With no entitlement to income replacement, taking unpaid leave can mean their monthly earnings fall by around 50% across income levels, approximately £710 for a low earner, around £1,020 for a median earner, and up to £1,490 for a higher earner.

Choices are constrained by access to savings

The failure of the current system to protect income means that taking paternity leave is not a genuine choice for many fathers. Instead, the ability to take leave depends not only on employment type but also on whether families have access to financial resources, such as savings or other sources of income, that can smooth the income loss.

Low- and middle-income households are far less likely to have financial buffers to absorb income shocks. In 2024, 22% of adults in households earning under £15,000 per year reported having no savings, compared with just 3% of those earning £50,000 or more. Even when low-income households do have savings, 36% hold less than £1,000.

For a low-paid employed father losing around £350 in the month they take paternity leave, this represents roughly 35% of a £1,000 savings pot. For self-employed fathers, the same income loss can wipe out almost all available savings. As a result, many low- and middle-income families either forgo paternity leave altogether or exhaust their limited financial buffers to take it, leaving them exposed to further financial shocks.

What would a more adequate Statutory Paternity Leave look like? What would it cost?

A paternity leave system that is both better paid and accessible to fathers regardless of employment type is essential. We estimate that in 2023/24 there were approximately 500,000 employee fathers and around 70,000 self-employed fathers in Great Britain with a child under one.³ If this number of self-employed fathers were granted the same statutory entitlement as employees, the cost of reform is small — between between £6.8 million and £18.9 million⁴ depending on take-up.

A more ambitious reform would offer 6 weeks of leave at a 90% replacement rate, capped at £1,200 for both employed and self-employed fathers. Previous research from the CPP and JRF suggests this would have a net cost of £200 million, with a potential economy-wide benefit of £2.68 billion, primarily driven by women going back into the labour market and increased take-up of formal childcare.

Note

1. Own calculations using Parental Right Survey 2019, available in UK Data Service. This number includes self-employed and employee mothers and self-employed and employee fathers, respectively.
2. Own calculations using Parental Right Survey 2019, available in UK Data Service.
3. Authors’ calculations based on FRS 2023/24. Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100,000.
4. The total cost of this reform is very sensible to the take-up estimates of the number of self-employed fathers with a child under 1 and the take-up estimates. Following international evidence, we have calculated a 10-percentage point increase in the current take-up estimates for self-employed fathers.