Some years back, a few days after learning I was pregnant, I rang a woman who had recently offered me a job. She was about to go on maternity leave herself, and given it was a female-focussed company – staffed entirely by women – I assumed that there wouldn’t be any issue. Legally, there was no need for me to tell her I’d be going on maternity leave eight months after joining the business either, but it felt like a polite thing to do… until the phone line fell silent. I panicked, stomach knotted with guilt. “Right,” she said. “I'll call you back.”
When she did (eventually) phone back, she rather guiltily spelled out what benefits I would – or rather wouldn’t – be entitled to as a result of starting a new job while pregnant. And what I heard was both depressing and shocking in equal measure.
Under the current system, when it comes to maternity leave you’re entitled to (at least) 90% of your full pay for the first six weeks. That is, if you’ve been employed for at least a year when you fall pregnant. So, for the average woman in the UK who is employed full time, earning around £29,000 per year, that figure would be closer to the £500 per week mark. However if you’ve not been employed for a year, you’re only entitled to statutory maternity pay for those six weeks, which equates to just £183.03 per week. Spot the difference much?
But things are – hopefully – about to change. The government has today announced new plans for the Employments Rights Bill as part of its Make Work Pay campaign.
It has promised to introduce ‘Day One’ rights for workers, meaning that you’ll no longer have to be an employee for a specific length of time before you can benefit from the protections afforded to employees who’ve been at the company for a year or more. Something that’s especially relevant if you are, or at some point might become, a working parent.
The reform will also deliver stronger protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work, including protection from dismissal whilst expecting, while on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work.
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There are also other, equally important and non-financial Day One rights set to kick in, which I’m hopeful will benefit women in particular and help us to close the gender pay gap (women still earn 91p for each £1 a man does). As per the government's plans, employers will now have to offer “flexible working as the default” unless they can prove it’s incompatible with the role (a win whether you’re a parent or not: we all benefit from having more control over our work-life balance, which in turn has been proven to help boost happiness, health and productivity).
The new press release also says there’ll be reviews into the parental and carers leave systems (at the moment workers are entitled to one unpaid week of leave per year to care for a loved one and on the parenting front, once you've been employed for a year you can take up to 4 weeks per year per child of unpaid leave) to ensure they are delivering for employers, workers and their loved ones. Plus, the Labour government has pledged to tackle the complexities of zero hours contracts and establish a right to bereavement leave.
It all sounds promising, sure. I want to feel reassured. But we all know that when it comes to policy, you can’t get too excited until you’ve read the small print (see: ‘free’ childcare hours for frustrating details!) and we’ve seen the plans in action, says Joeli Brearley, the CEO and Founder of Pregnant Then Screwed.
“There are some clear wins in this bill – moving to a Day One right to parental leave makes absolute sense, though we do need clarity as to whether that includes statutory pay. We’re pleased to see large employers will be required to create action plans for reducing their gender pay gap too, though we do need clarity on how this will be enforced,” Brearley tells Cosmopolitan UK. “We are thrilled the government has moved forward with this bill, [but] the next step is to ensure it isn’t all fur coat and no knickers… A review of parental leave feels like [it’s just] kicking the can down the road. Ultimately, [we already know] it needs to be better paid and paternity leave should be longer. We need action, not more research.”
Other experts are a bit more enthused about the changes. Jemima Olchawski, CEO of Fawcett Society, said as part of the government’s announcement: “Today’s draft employment bill is a win for women. Fawcett and our members have campaigned long and hard to see the government chart a new course for inclusive economic growth and to improve women’s working lives. We share this government’s ambition to ensure all women can thrive at work and fully contribute to the economy.”
In short it’s a positive step, but it’s not the silver bullet that maternity support in this country so badly needs. We’re still playing catch up with other European countries, like Finland, where both parents get 164 days off work each at 70% of their full pay.
Social pressures on women not to have babies ‘too soon’ after starting a role aren’t going to vanish overnight either – and this legislation is only going to ease one small burden on women.
Time and time again I hear from my career driven friends, who are wrestling with the balance of progression and fertility, that they have to ‘time having their babies around their jobs’. There’s a feeling that it’s ‘unfair’ to get pregnant too quickly because it ‘disrupts’ their workplace, and consensus seems to be that it’s ‘right’ to wait two years after starting a new role before having a baby. In fact, a 2022 study by Fertility Family found that one in five women had delayed having a baby in order to protect her career.
The stress doesn’t miraculously ease if and when you do fall pregnant either. There’s still no end in sight to women selling their clothes or secretly working to make extra money while on maternity leave just to make ends meet, and let’s not forget that one in five women have used a food bank while on maternity leave either.
We have to remain vocal and continue to put the pressure on those in charge to really commit to improving quality of life (and career stability) for women, no matter their family situation. And on our side, perhaps – easier said than done I know – we have to stop allowing ourselves to feel guilty if we do become pregnant while in a new job.
Because when you think about it, is it not utterly bonkers to plot your fertility and family planning around your boss's preferences rather than your own?
From 26 October 2024, the base offer from your employer will be the same whether you’ve been in the job for eighteen months or eighteen minutes. So, if you’re agonising over when to try for a baby, yes it’s probably wise to think about finances, how strong your relationship is and how you deal with sleep deprivation. But for goodness sake, please don’t think about how it’s going to go down with your manager – and don’t forget to nudge your child-free work wife into submitting her flexible working request while you’re at it.
