Paternity month is every father’s right
From the start of the year I’m on leave for five weeks, hooray! Have I been saving my annual leave? No. Unpaid holiday? No, no. I’m taking a six week so-called paternity month, meaning I can set off with my family to China to spend the local New Year with my wife’s relatives and my children’s grandparents.
In Finland, as is the case now in many European countries, new fathers have the opportunity of a maximum three week paternity leave after the birth of their child.
Later, at the end of the period of maternity leave, the parents can decide to take parental leave to care for the child for a roughly five month period. The parents can also choose to split this leave period between themselves. If a father uses at least 12 days of his parental leave, he will get a maximum of 24 additional days leave. This maximum six week period is called a paternity month.
Paternity leave has been available in Finland for longer than anywhere else. It was proposed in 1977. The duration in Finland is longer than in many countries, though in neighbouring Sweden and in Norway it can be even longer and the compensation paid by the state slightly higher.
Paternity leave is taken up by more than 80 percent of Finnish fathers. On the other hand, the parental leave option is used relatively little. In 2007 only around six percent of fathers made use of parental leave while in Sweden the corresponding figure was more than 20 percent. This figure in Finland is rising, however.
Previously the paternity month was four weeks long but in 2010 this was raised to six weeks. It is to be hoped that this will prompt even more fathers to take advantage of their paternity month. Children are only little once so the opportunity to spend longer with them is well worth it, despite the small drop in income.
