Employers’ Discrimination Against Fathers and Mothers Taking Parental Leave: Evidence from a Choice Experiment

In this study, we examine the consequences of parental leave use for mothers’ and fathers’ hiring and earning opportunities. This topic is of high social importance given the persistently low uptake of parental leave by men in Europe. In countries where parental leave is granted to fathers on a "use it or lose it" basis, men typically make use of the portion of the leave specifically designated for them but rarely take advantage of the entitlements available to both parents. One of the reasons for this state of affairs might be that employers discriminate against parents who make use of parental leave and penalise fathers more than mothers. This is because men are still expected to be loyal employees for whom work always comes first. We test these hypotheses using a self-designed discrete choice experiment, which allows for the estimation of causal effect and discriminatory practices. We interview 1,000 managers who are asked to assess hypothetical job candidates with randomly assigned genders and varying durations of parental leave taken. We also asked them to answer several questions about themselves (e.g. gender role attitudes, work centrality) and the company they work in (e.g. presence of ideal worker norms). The sample is representative in terms of the employer’s gender and the company’s size, sector and region. This study is situated in Poland, where a two-month parental leave for fathers was introduced in May 2023, following the implementation of the EU Work-Life Balance Directive. Data collection is still ongoing, and results are not available at this stage; however, data analysis and the final article will be completed by the time of the conference.