Individual, family, and employer: Factors associated with fathers' use of parental leave

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Youjin Choi
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12863

RESEARCH

Individual, family, and employer: Factors associated

with fathers’use of parental leave

Youjin Choi

Social Analysis and Modelling Division,

Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Canada

Correspondence

Youjin Choi, Social Analysis and Modelling

Division, Statistics Canada, 100 Tunney’s

Pasture Driveway, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6,

Canada.

Email: youjin.choi@statcan.gc.ca

Funding information

This paper was funded by Women and Gender

Equality Canada (WAGE). The opinions

expressed herein are those of the author and do

not represent the position of Statistics Canada

or WAGE.

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to examine factors associated

with fathers’use of parental leave in Canada, considering

a rich set of individual, family, and employer

characteristics.

Background: The province of Quebec and the rest of

Canada have two different parental benefits programs and

show different patterns in fathers’parental benefit use.

Also, the role of employers in fathers’benefit use has

gained little attention in the Canadian context.

Method: Using Canadian administrative data, logistic

regression models were estimated separately for the two

regions to examine characteristics associated with the like-

lihood of using parental benefits among fathers whose first

child was born in 2016.

Results: The percentage of male coworkers who used

parental benefits, employer’s industry, fathers’earnings,

and whether the mother received parental benefits were

important factors for fathers’parental benefit use in both

Quebec and the rest of Canada. Some of these associations

were opposite in the two regions.

Conclusion: Not only individual and family characteristics

but also employer characteristics are important for under-

standing fathers’parental benefit use, and these associa-

tions depend on the design of a parental benefit program.

Implications: Findings can be used to improve a parental

benefit program to target fathers with low uptake or their

employers.

KEYWORDS

coworkers, employer–employee matched data, fatherhood, parental leave

Author note: The author gratefully acknowledges comments from three anonymous referees. The author would like to thank Feng Hou,

Marc Frenette, Karine Lederc, Ivania Ledesma, Melanie Cove, Karine Landry, and Tia Carpino for their advice andsuggestions on an

earlier version of this paper.

Received: 21 January 2022Revised: 10 January 2023Accepted: 12 January 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12863

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:2731–2753. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 2731

INTRODUCTION

Fathers’use of parental leave may confer several potential implications to their families. First,

research has shown that fathers’involvement with children in early childhood was linked to

positive child outcomes, such as cognitive (language and reading skills) and behavioral develop-

mental outcomes (Cabrera et al., 2018; Huerta et al., 2013; Roggman et al., 2004; Sarkadi

et al., 2008; Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2004). Second, studies have found that fathers’take-up of

parental leave has a lasting impact on fathers’involvement in childcare and housework, and

may improve mothers’involvement in the workplace after parental leave (Patnaik, 2019;

Tamm, 2019; Wray, 2020). These findings are consistent with the notion that increased use of

parental benefits by fathers may lead to greater gender equality in the home and in the work-

place in the long run. Lastly, fathers’use of parental benefit may lead to a temporary reduction

in family income. The reduction may be larger for families where a father is the primary

breadwinner.

A series of policy efforts have been made to extend parental benefits available to fathers in

addition to maternity benefits for mothers in Canada. However, except Quebec, where parental

benefit use of fathers surged after the new program was introduced in 2006, fathers’benefit use

has remained low in the rest of Canada during the first 2 decades of the 2000s. Given the impor-

tant implications of fathers’parental benefit use, this study aims to examine which factors are

associated with fathers’parental benefit use in Canada, considering a rich set of individual,

family, and employer characteristics. The analysis focuses on a cohort of fathers who had their

first child in 2016 in opposite-sex couple families and uses integrated data from three adminis-

trative data sets from the Canadian Employer-Employee Dynamics Database (CEEDD).

Logistic regression models were estimated separately for the two regions to examine factors

associated with the likelihood of fathers using parental benefits under two different program

designs. This study draws attention to employment and employer characteristics of fathers in

understanding their parental benefit use in the Canadian context and provides suggestive evi-

dence that the policy context matters in understanding factors associated with fathers’

benefit use.

Background

Paid parental leave provides job protection and financial support for working parents to take

time off work and take care of their newly born or adoptive children. In Canada, the paid

parental leave program started with a federal paid maternity leave reserved for mothers in 1971

as special benefits under the Employment Insurance (EI) program, then called Unemployment

Insurance. In addition to regular benefits that are provided to individuals who lose theirjobs

for involuntary reasons (e.g., shortage of work or seasonal layoff) and actively search for a job,

the EI program provides special benefits that include parental benefits as well as sickness, com-

passionate care, family benefits, fishing, work-sharing, and apprenticeship training benefits

(Employment and Social Development Canada [ESDC], 2021). A right to return to a prebirth

employer was established by federal and provincial legislation, and parental benefits were avail-

able through the EI (Baker & Milligan, 2008). Parental benefits available to fathers were first

put in place in 1990. In that year, 10 weeks of parental benefits, which two parents can split and

share, were added to maternity benefits. Since then, a series of policy efforts were made to

extend parental benefits available to fathers. In 2001, the length of parental benefits was

extended to 35 weeks so that parents could spend more time with a newborn or an adopted

child with temporary income replacement. The policy extension also exempted the second par-

ent, a father in many families, from a waiting period for EI parental benefits to encourage two

parents to share benefits.

2732 FAMILY RELATIONS