Low-income mothers (bottom third of income), mothers without tertiary education, mothers in casual work and self-employed mothers responded most strongly to the introduction of PPL. These results are as expected, given that: PPL provides payment at the national minimum wage for up to 18 weeks, which is a larger proportion of their usual income for low-income women than for high-income women. High-income women and tertiary-educated women are more likely to have access to employer paid parental leave compared to other women. For these women, the availability of PPL makes a relatively small difference to their leave options. In contrast, low-income and women are more likely to be in jobs without access to any paid parental leave before PPL, so the availability of PPL makes a large difference to their leave options. Self-employed and casually employed women are very unlikely to have access to employer paid parental leave, so for many of these women the introduction of PPL was a substantial change. The second component of the analysis focussed on mothers who returned to work by the time their child turned one year of age. Amongst this group, PPL led to: A significant increase in the probability that mothers returned to the pre-birth job. This effect is largest for women without tertiary qualification, and to a lesser extent (and only at the 10% significance level) also for those with low income. A significant increase in the probability of women returning to the same job with the same conditions, with little variation between groups of mothers. PPL appears to have limited bearing on the type of jobs to which mothers return if they do not return to their pre-birth job and conditions.
Low-income mothers (bottom third of income), mothers without tertiary education, mothers in casual work and self-employed mothers responded most strongly to the introduction of PPL. These results are as expected, given that: PPL provides payment at the national minimum wage for up to 18 weeks, which is a larger proportion of their usual income for low-income women than for high-income women. High-income women and tertiary-educated women are more likely to have access to employer paid parental leave compared to other women. For these women, the availability of PPL makes a relatively small difference to their leave options. In contrast, low-income and women are more likely to be in jobs without access to any paid parental leave before PPL, so the availability of PPL makes a large difference to their leave options. Self-employed and casually employed women are very unlikely to have access to employer paid parental leave, so for many of these women the introduction of PPL was a substantial change. The second component of the analysis focussed on mothers who returned to work by the time their child turned one year of age. Amongst this group, PPL led to: A significant increase in the probability that mothers returned to the pre-birth job. This effect is largest for women without tertiary qualification, and to a lesser extent (and only at the 10% significance level) also for those with low income. A significant increase in the probability of women returning to the same job with the same conditions, with little variation between groups of mothers. PPL appears to have limited bearing on the type of jobs to which mothers return if they do not return to their pre-birth job and conditions.
finalphase4_report_6_march_2015_0.docx