UK Advocates Pushing for Equal Parental Leave in Legislation and Tech Sector
UK Employers Lead the Way with Extended Paternity Leave
In a significant stride towards promoting work-life balance and gender equality, several UK employers have begun offering extended extended stay leave to their male employees.
Leading the pack are management consulting firms Bain & Company and Deloitte, who became the first Big Four firm to offer 26 weeks of equal parental leave. Close behind are the retail and consumer goods industries, with 16 businesses such as Aldi, Burberry Group PLC, Diageo, Innocent Drinks, John Lewis, Mars, Tate & Lyle, and Unilever, offering similar benefits. The technology and telecommunications sector follows suit, with 17 companies including BT Group, HP, Lenovo, Netflix, Sony Music, Vodafone, and Wise, providing equal parental leave.
The finance and insurance sectors dominate the list, with 35 companies named, including Abrdn (Standard Life Aberdeen PLC), Aviva, Deutsche Bank, Direct Line Group, Goldman Sachs, Investec, J.P. Morgan, Klarna, Lloyd's Banking Group, and the London Stock Exchange.
A total of 72 out of the 165 UK employers offering equal parental leave provide fathers with up to six months of fully paid extended stay, but the average is 20 weeks. This extended stay is beneficial for working women, as it promotes a more equitable distribution of childcare responsibilities.
Energy giant E.ON, which is on the list, has seen over 350 of its staff members take advantage of the equal parental leave since its launch in January 2023.
The London office of US law firm Jenner & Block increased its parental leave from the standard two weeks to up to 20 weeks, but was not listed in the initial 165 UK employers offering equal parental leave. Christine Braamskamp, managing partner of Jenner & Block's London office, aims for a parental leave policy that almost equalizes the position between men and women.
Elliott Rae, founder of Parenting Out Loud, emphasizes the importance of investing in culture change work to normalize male caring and support dads to Parent Out Loud at work, including taking full parental leave, requesting flexible working for childcare reasons, and having an open diary with their childcare responsibilities. Rae also highlights that supporting dads to be equal parents is beneficial for workplace gender equality, as 80% of the gender pay gap is attributed to the motherhood penalty.
It's worth noting that there is no direct publicly available information showing that specific consulting or law firms in Germany offer fully paid parental leave benefits for men up to six months. Instead, parental allowance (Elterngeld) and parental leave conditions are governed by German law, and financial benefits are generally provided through state systems like the Familienkasse, with individual employers possibly offering variable additional benefits, but no named firms from the consulting or legal sector are identified as providing such extended paid parental leave specifically for men.
The pay for statutory paternity leave in the UK is either £187.18 per week (as of April 2025) or 90 per cent of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
As more UK employers adopt extended paternity leave policies, the hope is that this will lead to a more balanced workforce and a more equitable distribution of childcare responsibilities.
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