Paying for parental leave
Businesses are providing increasingly generous leave, going above some of the rich world’s stingiest childcare laws
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, April 8, by Justin Giovannetti. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Getting immigration right; banning sugary drinks in schools; emails reveal school response to Islamophobic attack; but first, how to improve the country’s parental leave offering.
New Zealand’s showing in a Unicef survey of national childcare policies isn’t flattering. (Getty Images)
Leading the change on parental leave in New Zealand.
Dean Wharewera’s employer extended its offering of paid parental leave to 12 weeks last year, regardless of gender or parenting role. He told Stuff that he jumped at the opportunity to be a stay-at-home dad for three months. His partner was keen on getting back to work and he wanted to spend time with his kids. Dads taking parental leave in Aotearoa remains a rarity. As Wharewera explains, he felt guilty taking 12 weeks off, despite giving his manager six months to prepare. The stereotypes are starting to change and some big companies are coming forward with gender-neutral, and more generous, parental leave policies.
Aotearoa has some of the world’s most meagre childcare policies.
New Zealand’s parental leave policies have improved over the past two decades, but they remain some of the least generous among rich countries. The Economist put out a striking graphic last year that ranks Aotearoa in 33rd place out of 41 OECD countries for childcare. The finding can be confounding to some New Zealanders, especially those who don’t have infants. It’s based on a Unicef study released last year that looked across national childcare policies. Specifically on parental leave, the UN agency ranked Aotearoa the third worst, beating only Switzerland and the US. Infamously, the US has no paid parental leave policies.
Didn’t the government fix this?
Labour increased New Zealand’s paid parental leave to 26 weeks in 2020. That’s captured in the data above. However, there’s a payment cap of $621 per week (which is significantly less than a full time worker on minimum wage). The OECD average is 51 weeks of full pay. Romania offers the most generous scheme at 92 weeks, while Aotearoa’s offering is calculated by Unicef to be around nine weeks of full pay for the average worker. Stuff reports that while New Zealand has some of the best quality childcare in the world, it’s also some of the least affordable. Despite 20 hours of free weekly ECE for children aged three to five, childcare consumes up to 37% of the average wage of a couple, with children under three. Unicef has called on the government to extend free ECE to one-year-olds and to introduce national targets to increase the affordability and accessibility of childcare.
The future direction of parental leave in New Zealand.
At a time when many families are struggling, expensive childcare costs have received almost no attention in the Beehive. Without direction from the government, telecommunications company 2degrees increased its parental leave payments to 100% of an employee’s salary last year. The company said the more generous policy was a way to attract and retain talent in a competitive labour market. The government’s scheme has been recently going in the other direction. The NZ Herald reported on Inland Revenue fighting two new mothers to deny leave payments for their second children. The women hadn’t waited long enough between births, the IRD argued. The Employment Relations Authority ruled on appeal that IRD was right and both women shouldn’t have access to parental leave.
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Getting the border reopening right.
After two years with almost no immigration, New Zealand is preparing to once again reopen its border in the coming weeks. Newsroom reports that the Productivity Commission will be reporting to the government in the coming weeks. On the agenda will be the future of migration and whether the country has depended too much on temporary labour. There’s also talk of a tourism reset. The Spinoff looks at whether it’s possible for Aotearoa to shift from mass tourism to “high values” visitors. While the government wants to target the wealthy, there’s an alternative call to attract tourists who share the country’s values.
Fizzies are out and milk in, with proposed overhaul of school drinks.
The government is looking at banning sugary drinks from primary schools with a pivot towards healthy options. 1News reports that the proposal would limit students to water, milk and plant-based milks. According to the government, dental decay is the most common disease for the country’s children, while obesity rates are increasingly significantly. Sugary drinks account for a quarter of children’s sugar intake in Aotearoa. Consultations are open for eight weeks on the proposed ban.
How Otago Girls’ High School responded to an Islamophobic attack.
The Otago Daily Times received internal emails sent within Otago Girls’ High School in the days following an attack on a student in February. There was a global outcry after Hoda Al-Jamaa’s hijab was pulled off and she had to be taken to hospital. The school wouldn’t comment in the first days and kept its public statements to a minimum. The emails are unflattering. There’s little mention of Al-Jamaa or the Muslim community in the emails, except from one complaint from the principal that she was “stretched to the limit with the Muslim community demanding constant communication and response”. Instead, the focus is on managing angry social media comments and offering counselling sessions. The counselling isn’t for students, it’s for staff. The school has yet to publicly confirm any steps it took in response to Islamophobia within its halls.
Louisa Wall gets ambassador role with Foreign Affairs.
The outgoing Labour MP will become the country’s ambassador for Pacific gender equality after she leaves Parliament next month. The NZ Herald reports that she will work in Auckland for the ministry of foreign affairs and trade. The role will also see her promote LGBTQI equality around the world. Wall is leaving Parliament after 14 years where she was an outspoken Labour backbencher with an outsized role in foreign affairs.
Talks underway to avert Auckland transit cuts.
Auckland’s public transport agency announced earlier this week that it can’t afford to run the system in its current form amid declining ridership and increasing costs. Stuff reports that high level talks are underway between council, the government and Auckland Transport. Patronage on the city’s buses and trains is at only 40% of pre-Covid levels and the agency is warning it’ll need more funding or will cut services.
Reader response: On fair pay agreements.
Ben wrote in response to yesterday’s main story, on fair pay agreements, that now is the time for the government to act. Thank you Ben for the feedback. Here’s what he wrote:
“The best time for fair pay agreements was when Labour was first elected in 2017 and the second best time is now... In industries like security and cleaning, that are based on competitive tender models, any employer who wants to pay their workers a living wage or guarantee hours of work is effectively pushed out of the market. FPAs will take wages out of competition in these sectors and ensure good employers and their staff aren't punished by the race to the bottom instigated by cowboy operators.”
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz
Siouxsie Wiles & Jin Russell explain why the real-time global data on Covid is getting harder to decipher. Madeleine Chapman argues that hot cross buns are too big now. Ben Fahy (partnership) writes that solid planning can turn neighbourhoods into ecosystems. Don Rowe looks at the day the Matariki holiday became official. Sela Jane Hopgood reports on how a Pasifika media company came to be a leader in the menstrual leave movement.
All Blacks make changes to coaching staff.
The NZ Herald (paywalled) reports on two new additions to the team’s coaching staff after a tough season. After losses to Ireland and France, coach Ian Foster identified deficiencies in the team. He added Andrew Strawbridge, to help oversee skills development, and Mike Cron to revamp the team’s scrum game. The expanded coaching group has its eyes set on the 2023 World Cup.