More employers are using paid parental leave as a selling point to lure workers in what a leading jobs market economist has called a significant shift, particularly in male-dominated industries.

Callam Pickering, APAC economist at online jobs board Indeed, says more than one in eight postings now mention paid parental leave (PPL), up 10.6 per cent on average over the past year.

Interestingly, PPL policies were more likely to be emphasised in job ads within traditionally male-dominated occupations.

These include engineering, banking, finance, information design and software development.

“The change has been significant over the past few years,” Pickering said.

“There has been a shift in the extent to which employers want to emphasise these benefits.”

But Pickering says an increase in employers offering and advertising PPL is just “one side of the coin”, with many men still opting to avoid taking PPL even when bosses have made it available.

Just 14 per cent of people who took leave as a primary caregiver or under a universal scheme were men in 2022-23, an increase from 10 per cent in 2020-21.

“It’s clear that entrenched gender expectations around child rearing and care-giving are proving difficult to overcome,” Pickering said.

Paid parental leave lure

Increased availability and also government backing for PPL has improved accessibility for parents across the jobs market in recent years.

Under Australia’s two-tiered system, the federal government funds relatively short parental leave periods (at least by global standards) which is then supplemented by leave from employers.

Taxpayers fund up to 22 weeks of time off, paid at the national minimum wage – in families with two parents, a primary caregiver receives up to 20 weeks leave while a secondary gets two.

Those periods are expanding to 24 weeks in July next year and again to 26 weeks in 2026.

That’s still far less than the average of 51 weeks offered across advanced economies globally, Pickering said, though in reality two-thirds of Australian employers supplement this leave.

The length of the PPL offered varies massively between industry – between 14.7 weeks among utilities companies and a low of 8.1 weeks in accommodation and food services.

Employers are increasingly seeking to compete for workers with their PPL policies, particularly in male-dominated sectors, which Pickering said could reflect a desire to boost workplace diversity.

“It could reflect these sectors trying to attract more women to the industry,” Pickering said of the concentration of PPL advertising in male-dominated industries.

“[They’re] highlighting that they have great parental leave policies.”

Male participation key

A stigma around men taking parental leave is still evident in the data however, reflecting entrenched attitudes about gender roles among parents that have economic implications.

Pickering said that because women still take the vast majority of parental leave, they’re often expected to sit on the sidelines of the workforce for extended periods.

“There are long-term implications to taking a prolonged period out of the workforce, which is the reality for many working women who have children,” Pickering said.

“More equitable distribution of parental leave would mean the stigma associated with leaving the workforce for a period of time will diminish.”

The next challenge for employers, even as PPL policies become more generous, is to find ways to encourage male workers to take on a greater portion of the caring load by utilising the policies.