Parental leave vs. maternity leave: Comprehensive guide for employers

Preparing for and bringing home a child is one of the most exciting, impactful, and emotionally profound experiences in life. For many of your employees, they’ll want and need time away from work to heal, recover, and bond with their families. Family leave, which often is broken down into maternity, paternity, and/or parental leave, gives employees a framework to take the time they need, balancing a short-term dip in productivity for long-term satisfaction, loyalty, and performance. 

Every organization handles paid parental leave differently, and it’s likely you offer some combination of maternity, paternity, or parental leave. Understanding the benefits and distinctions can help you ensure you’re offering the right type of leave for your organization. 

Understanding parental leave and maternity leave

Parental leave and maternity leave are programs that allow employees to take time off before, during, and after the child's birth or when bringing home an adopted child. During this crucial time, it gives them job security, knowing they'll be able to return to work without penalty at the end of their maternity and paternity leave. Parental leave is a gender-neutral program that allows any person in a parenting role, including non-birthing parents and adoptive parents, to take time off work after fulfilling one of these criteria. Maternity leave, on the other hand, is typically reserved for birthing parents. 

Some employers build a maternity or parental leave policy by combining some form of short term disability, paid vacation time, sick time, and unpaid family leave. Others offer simpler, modern maternity leave programs that offer inclusive parental leave policies and programs.

Parental and maternity leave duration and flexibility

FMLA leave allows new parents and adoptive parents to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off of work. For paid leave programs, duration varies from a few days to an entire year. Studies suggest the average new mother takes 10 weeks off from work during maternity leave, while non-birthing partners take an average of just one week off from work. Many leave programs allow birthing and non-birthing parents to spread out their leave over the year, so they don’t have to take all their time off at once.

Paid family leave in the US and around the world

In the US, there is no standard for paid parental leave. In fact, it's one of the only developed countries without it. There are only seven other countries in the world that do not mandate paid family leave: Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Tonga. According to the Better Life Lab, it’s recommended that new parents take at least six months of paid parental leave to maximize infant and child health and wellbeing. However, the average US worker only takes four weeks of paid parental leave. Without standardized paid parental and paid maternal leave, many working parents suffer. It’s especially common for new parents in lower-wage positions and smaller companies to be subjected to pregnancy discrimination, which has an outsized effect on people of color and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Elsewhere in the world, however, paid parental leave is mandated and guaranteed to some extent by the federal government. Under this model, employees can be certain that not only will they have a job when they’re ready to return to work, but they’ll also have at least some percentage of their income while they’re away from their desk. Some employers offer 100% income and health benefits, while others provide a percentage of an employee’s income.

Implications of paid and unpaid leave programs

Without paid parental leave, families are often forced to make difficult decisions between recovering physically and emotionally, bonding with their new child, and getting back to work. Paid parental leave, however, has numerous benefits for employers, including:

• Improved employee engagement, morale, and satisfaction
• Reduced turnover and improved loyalty
• Improved productivity for employees returning from leave

For employees, paid maternity and parental leave has innumerable benefits for new parents and their children. For children, that includes:

• Increase immunization rates
• Increased likelihood and duration of breastfeeding
• Decreased rates of infant mortality
• Improved brain function
• Reduced avoidable hospital visits

And many more. For new parents, paid leave provides:

• Improved physical and mental health outcomes
• Reduced maternal stress

To put it simply, paid parental leave and maternity leave in any form is good for everyone. It helps families adjust, heal, and bond without fearing for their economic stability. And it helps employers retain workers, improve productivity and satisfaction, and reduce their total healthcare costs.

Challenges and considerations in leave programs

When assessing your parental leave program, there are a few dimensions to consider. 

Gender roles and inclusivity

In differentiating maternity leave from parental leave, you run the risk of perpetuating traditional gender roles and gender discrimination. This is especially relevant if your maternity leave programs have different eligibility requirements or parameters. It’s difficult to know exactly what an employee’s home life entails: their level of responsibility, their emotional needs, and their bonding process with their new child. Likewise, gender doesn't necessarily correlate with who becomes the primary caregiver.

Forcing them to take one form of leave over another because of their gender can inadvertently cause stress for employees during a pivotal moment in their life. Likewise, as more families pursue alternative forms of family building like IVF or adoption, the traditional roles of mom and dad blur even further. Creating a uniform parental leave program will help you further equity in your organization.

Cultural perceptions and stigma

There is a lot of stigma around taking leave from work, especially for men. While a recent McKinsey study showed the ample benefits for heterosexual men in taking leave, the average man takes only a single day of parental leave. Women often face similar stigma, although it plays out in different ways.

While they are more likely to take leave and for longer, pregnancy and the resulting need for leave impacts upward mobility for women in leadership roles across nearly every industry. The so-called maternal wall limits a woman’s ability to build trust and rapport with male colleagues when they look down upon the act of taking leave. In fact, even the expectation that a woman may eventually take leave can be a limiting factor in their career growth. 

In a similar vein, employees who undergo fertility treatments face a different level of stigma. Many employers are unaware of the physical and mental toll that fertility challenges place on their employees, offering little to no support during a challenging and transformative time. Consequently, a study found that 20% of employees facing fertility challenges quit their jobs because of the combined pressure of stigma, stress, and employment challenges.

Offering an inclusive parental leave policy can help alleviate a lot of these challenges, but it’s crucial to take it a step further and encourage employees to use their benefits to their fullest extent. 

Top companies offer inclusive paid parental leave programs

When considering the impact of paid leave on parents, the challenges and stigma they face, and the consequences of under used or unused leave, there’s only one solution apparent – and top employers already know it. Offering inclusive paid parental leave programs for eligible employees is the way forward.

Inclusive policies and recommendations

At the minimum, it’s recommended to offer at least twelve weeks of paid leave for employees. Ensure your policy allows for flexible or intermittent use to help reduce the impact of interruptions on operations, and help employees settle in as they return to work. AT&T, for example, offers 12 weeks of paid leave, starting one month before delivery, and with the ability to extend through short-term disability and FMLA in the event of complications or unique needs.

Offering additional maternity benefits and paternity support

Navigating fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum is an emotionally charged period of life. For many people, it’s often the first major health event they face that entails hospitalization or surgery. Every experience is different, and every family configuration needs different types and levels of support. Offering a service like Maven can help employees get the care they need when they need it, get their questions answered, and find peace of mind throughout the process.

Promote awareness and inclusivity

Finally, promoting awareness of your programs, and tying them to your DE&I programs, can go a long way in encouraging usage and a healthy working culture. Go beyond the benefits fair and ensure you’re helping employees prepare for parental leave, paternity leave, or maternity leave with checklists, toolkits, and milestones before they bring their new family member home.

Build a better, cost-effective leave program with Maven

Building and growing a family is a lifelong experience and commitment. The maternity benefits you offer employees during this time plays a pivotal role in how their families are built and developed. Without paid leave or support programs, your employees may be more likely to experience avoidable medical expenses and emergency room visits, which can have a major impact on your total healthcare costs.

Investing in your employees through parental leave and programs like Maven can help you reduce the burden of preventable medical procedures before, during, and after childbirth, while improving employee satisfaction and retention. To learn more about how Maven is helping organizations like yours build a better future for their employees, check out our case studies or schedule a demo with our team.