Should parents of school-aged kids get extra paid annual leave?

Growing Pains is a new weekly column on nine.com.au exploring the world of parenting – from the wins we publicly celebrate to the messy reality of raising a tiny human. Because despite what it looks like on social media, it’s not all aesthetic playrooms and effortless bliss.

It’s not often a retail company’s employment policies go viral, but recently the Australian parenting world was abuzz after the reveal clothing company DISSH offers, among other benefits, an extra two weeks of paid annual leave for parents until their kid turns 12.

Of course, it sparked a fierce debate. Is it “fair” for parents to get extra paid time off for a choice they made to have a family? Would it be unearned special treatment, or just a move that makes every employee more equal?

Parents need more time

Realistically, for most families, those extra weeks wouldn’t be used for a relaxing break. It’d cover all the sick days, early pickups, dentist appointments, school excursions and every other unplanned inconvenience that pops up as part of daily life. 

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School calendars seem to be stuck in the 1800s, when mums were always able to be on call for anything that could possibly come up during business hours. There’s the school play at 10am, the athletics carnivals, the day-long zoo excursions that need parental volunteers. 

Plus, the extracurricular activities – dance classes, soccer training – that start at 3:30pm, a good two hours before the workday typically ends. Then there’s the school holidays.

The math isn’t mathing – Australians get about 20 days of paid annual leave, but kids get 12 weeks of school holidays per year.

More than half of parents have had to take unpaid leave or reduce their hours to navigate school holiday care. This often falls to the household’s lower-income earner, who, in most cases, is the woman, who has had to pause her career progression to have kids. 

Of course, many companies say they’re family-friendly, offering flexible working hours and locations – but if you’re absent, you tend to miss a lot. Extra paid leave wouldn’t be an advantage, it’d be equality. 

The burnout is real

From an employer’s perspective, giving parents an extra week off could lead to higher morale and more productive workers. Mums and dads are constantly trying to balance everything at home while also handling the demands of a 40+ hour work week. 

Childless workers can often home to relax after an eight-hour day, but for parents, there are still hours of unpaid work ahead. Annual leave days typically get used during school holidays, meaning they return to their desk just as tired and burnt-out as they were when they left. 

“A lot of childless people may not quite have the same outlook on getting extra leave just because you have kids,” a mum of a toddler told nine.com.au, adding that it’s not a holiday.

“I would not choose to have someone directly cough and sneeze into my mouth on a ‘day off’ for fun.”

Yes, having kids is a choice, but damn, parents need a break from their children now and then. Should choosing to have kids mean parents have to white-knuckle their way through 18+ years of life?

Parents need a job to pay the bills, but corporate demands cause stress to be brought home, and family demands make it harder to focus on work. One mum of three told nine.com.au parenthood is “destroyed” by the stress of employment and career progression.

“We have to make stupid choices and feel stressed all the time,” she added.

In Australia, we’re lucky enough to have a robust paid parental leave policy. Adding an extra two weeks of paid leave for parents is simply a recognition that the burden of care doesn’t end once you’re back to work.

Parents know what they’re getting themselves into

On the flip side of the coin, having kids isn’t a disability. It’s a clear argument: parents who choose to have kids go into it knowing what’s ahead, so don’t deserve any special treatment by employers.

Workers without kids already get the short end of the stick – having to cover less desirable holiday shifts, can’t take time off during school holidays if parents already have, being expected to stay late because they don’t have to do school pickups.

Mandated extra paid leave for parents, if not subsidised by the government, could also negatively impact small businesses.

Perhaps it’s fine for big corporations to dole out extra leave, but in reality, it would act as a direct tax on employers for hiring anyone with kids.

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This could even manifest as an unspoken incentive to avoid hiring parents of school-aged children, or rethink staffing when budget cuts need to be made.

One nine.com.au reader said she is “strictly opposed” to it: “It’s just not fair to everyone.”

“So many Aussies have other responsibilities or circumstances that would be a lot easier to manage if they had more paid leave – chronic health conditions, ageing parents, relatives who need extra support, mental health issues – but they don’t get special treatment.”

A happy medium?

If not paid leave, perhaps workplaces could do other things to make life easier for those juggling full-time work and the demands of childcare.

“I think ALL workplaces with over a certain number of employees MUST have proper childcare centres and school holiday programs,” one nine.com.au reader wrote.

“It’s such utter bulls--t that parents, mostly mums, are left to horrifically struggle with school hours and school holidays.”

She says employer childcare should be mandated by law and not cost workers a cent, to be subsidised by the government and the employer – or at the very least, be a three-way split.

“Then we wouldn’t need extra paid leave, and we wouldn’t feel stressed out about our jobs and career progression.”