Design Matters Most: Changing Social Gaps in the Use of Fathers’ Leave in Spain

This article addresses how the use of the Spanish paternity leave from 2008 until 2018 was conditioned by the social and economic context. In particular, we focus on how economic and institutional changes may have contributed to an increase in fathers’ uptake rates and to an alteration in social patterns of uptake. In 2007, Spain introduced a 2-week non-transferable paternity leave with 100% wage replacement. Despite the Great Recession, this leave has been widely used, although differently according to fathers’ socio-economic background. The objective is to analyse how the economic recovery and the subsequent extension of paternity leave to 4/5 weeks have impacted on the social gaps in uptake. Using a representative sample of 10,171 employed fathers with children 3 months or younger, obtained from a pool of 44 quarters of the Spanish Labour Force Survey, logistic regression models are estimated to analyse by fathers’ socio-economic backgrounds the impact of three historical moments on the likelihood of leave being used. Results show that the economic recovery did not change social gaps in leave uptake, but extension of leave has been the decisive event. It has narrowed or reversed the gaps in terms of social class, type of worker, type of contract and education. We conclude that the Spanish ‘daddy month’ has become a social norm for 80% of employed fathers, because of its design. Social gaps in uptake have changed because the new legislation has legitimised men using leave, and not because of lower opportunity costs during economic recovery.