In 2020 the proportion of maternity benefit recipients that did not receive any pay from their employer during their leave period was 37.9%. This dropped to 32.9% for those that started maternity in 2021.
Maternities starting in 2020 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic 77% of employees that had received a Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) before their maternity leave started did not receive any payment from their employer during maternity. These employees fell into 2 main groups; those that were on and off PUP for short periods and those that became long term unemployed. Any time that an employee spent on PUP was treated as a normal contribution to their PRSI, so it did not impact on their eligibility for maternity benefit. Additionally, a person’s employment contract could end up to 16 weeks before their maternity due date and they would still quality for maternity benefit.
Although PUP payments were higher than the maternity benefit payment there was no significant change to the proportion of maternity benefit claims compared to the total registered births during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic years.
Outside of the pandemic, the main factor that determined if an employee would receive pay from their employer during maternity was their average earnings relative to the maternity benefit payment. 84% of employees whose average earnings were lower than the maternity benefit payment did not receive any payment from their employer.
For the pay comparisons during maternity discussed in this chapter, two measures of pay were used. The first considered only pay from the employer, if any was received, which provides an indication of sectors and enterprises which provided a top up pay to their employees during their maternity. The second measure considered total pay, which includes both the maternity benefit payment plus any pay received from the employer during maternity. This measure provided the overall impact when comparing pay before maternity to pay received during maternity.
Note that the maternity benefit could be paid directly to the employer, who would then pay it to the employee plus any additional top up. To prevent double counting of the maternity benefit, the pay for USC was used instead of gross pay. Pay for USC excludes any payments from the Department of Social Protection.
See Background Notes for details of the methodology used for pay comparisons.
Looking at total pay during maternity, that is pay from the employer plus the maternity benefit, the overall impact on pay levels during maternity can be seen.
For maternities starting in 2021, 55.5% of employees received a total pay that was approximately the same as their pre-maternity levels, up from 52.6% on 2020. 14.5% of those starting in 2021 received less than 50% of their pre-maternity pay, down from 15.2% in 2020.
In terms of pay from the employer, those working in Public Administration & Defence fared the best where only 3.1% of those starting maternity in 2021 did not receive any top up pay during maternity compared to 80.9% of those working in Accommodation & Food Service Activities.
In that same year, employees in the Information & Communication (J) sector were most likely, at 19.5%, to receive pay from their employer that was within 90% of their pre-maternity pay.
| Sector | No pay from employer | More than 0% but less than 50% of pre-maternity pay | Between 50% and 90% of pre-maternity pay | More than 90% of pre-maternity pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Administration and Defence (O) | 3.1 | 5.6 | 78.5 | 12.8 |
| Education (P) | 11.3 | 4.5 | 72 | 12.2 |
| Information and Communication (J) | 16.6 | 19.6 | 44.2 | 19.5 |
| Financial and Real Estate (K-L) | 18.6 | 12 | 54.6 | 14.8 |
| Industry (B-E) | 24.1 | 19.3 | 41.1 | 15.5 |
| Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (M) | 33.5 | 16.2 | 34.4 | 15.8 |
| Human Health and Social Work Activities (Q) | 38.1 | 18.2 | 37.6 | 6.1 |
| Transportation and Storage (H) | 39.9 | 21.7 | 24.3 | 14.1 |
| Construction (F) | 47.6 | 12.6 | 26.2 | 13.6 |
| Administrative and Support Service Activities (N) | 52.1 | 20.4 | 18.6 | 8.9 |
| Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (A) | 55 | 16.8 | 13.7 | 14.5 |
| Wholesale and Retail Trade (G) | 58.1 | 22.7 | 12.6 | 6.6 |
| Other NACE Activities (R-U) | 73.3 | 11.7 | 10.1 | 5 |
| Accommodation and Food Service Activities (I) | 80.9 | 10.8 | 3.7 | 4.6 |
Comparing total pay, inclusive of the pay from the employer and the maternity benefit, to pre-maternity pay levels, employees in Public Administration & Defence fared the best. Just 2.1% of benefit recipients in that sector received less than 50% of their pre-maternity pay for leave starting in 2021.
For the same year, employees working in Construction were relatively the worst off with 27.8% receiving a total pay that was less than 50% of their pre-maternity pay.
It was notable that Sector I, Accommodation & Food Service Activities, which was the worst ranked sector in terms of benefit recipients not receiving any pay from their employer, had risen to joint 4th place when looking at total pay, with just 13.7% receiving a total payment less than 50% of their pre-maternity level. This sector, though, does have the highest proportion of employees with low earnings so the receipt of maternity benefit has had a large impact on employees within the sector. See Background Notes for a breakdown of employees with low earnings by sector.
| Sector | More than 0% but less than 50% of pre-maternity pay | Between 50% and 90% of pre-maternity pay | Full Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Administration and Defence (O) | 2.1 | 16.1 | 81.8 |
| Education (P) | 4.6 | 9 | 86.4 |
| Financial and Real Estate (K-L) | 13 | 22.7 | 64.3 |
| Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (A) | 13.7 | 49.6 | 36.6 |
| Accommodation and Food Service Activities (I) | 13.7 | 51 | 35.3 |
| Information and Communication (J) | 15.4 | 27.6 | 57 |
| Industry (B-E) | 15.7 | 34 | 50.3 |
| Other NACE Activities (R-U) | 16.2 | 47.2 | 36.6 |
| Human Health and Social Work Activities (Q) | 18.1 | 37 | 44.9 |
| Transportation and Storage (H) | 20 | 33.7 | 46.3 |
| Wholesale and Retail Trade (G) | 24.5 | 43.9 | 31.7 |
| Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (M) | 24.6 | 27.8 | 47.5 |
| Administrative and Support Service Activities (N) | 27.6 | 37.3 | 35.1 |
| Construction (F) | 27.8 | 31.1 | 41.1 |
In most sectors the proportion of employees that received less than 50% of their pre-maternity pay did not vary much year on year.
In the following sectors the proportion has increased from 2019 to 2021 –
While these sectors saw a decrease in the proportion of employees that received less than 50% of their pre-maternity pay between 2019 and 2021 –
Employees in micro enterprises were the least likely to receive any payment from their employer during maternity.
For maternities starting in 2021, 70.6% of those working in enterprises with 0 to 9 employees did not receive any payment from their employer. For the same year, 14.1% of those working in enterprises with 250 or more employees did not receive any payment from their employer during maternity.
Employees in large enterprises were most likely to receive total pay during maternity that was close to their pre-maternity pay levels with 69.4% of those that started maternity in 2021 receiving full pay.
For the same year 26.9% of employees working in enterprises with 10 to 49 employees received a total payment of less than 50% of their pre-maternity levels.
In 2020 50.2% of fathers in employment did not claim paternity benefit, up from 48.2% from 2019. Including data from previous years, the proportion not claiming the benefit has been rising year on year since 2017.
For this report a father in employment is defined as one with a registered childbirth, and with recorded pay from an employment in a time window spanning 1 month before the birth of the child and up to 7 months after the birth. Note that at the time of publication there was no data available for 2021 or 2022 for those that were self-employed, hence these years have been excluded from this section of the analysis
Employees working in Accommodation & Food Service Activities were least likely to claim paternity benefit with 73% of fathers not claiming benefits in 2020.
In the following sectors there has been a substantial increase in the number of fathers that did not claim paternity between 2019 and 2020 –
| Sector | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Industry (B to E) | 36.3 | 38.6 |
| Education (P) | 34.7 | 38.8 |
| Public Administration and Defence (O) | 40.9 | 39.1 |
| Financial & Real Estate (K,L) | 36.1 | 39.2 |
| Information and communication (J) | 44.8 | 44.5 |
| Human Health and Social Work Activities (Q) | 46.6 | 45.7 |
| Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (M) | 46.3 | 46.8 |
| Wholesale and Retail Trade (G) | 48 | 51.8 |
| Transportation and Storage (H) | 55.1 | 58.3 |
| Construction (F) | 59.7 | 60.9 |
| Administrative and Support Service Activities (N) | 58.6 | 62.4 |
| Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (A) | 65.3 | 62.9 |
| Other NACE Activities (R - U) | 61.5 | 66.7 |
| Accommodation & Food Service Activities (I) | 62.8 | 73.1 |
Looking at trends for selected sectors since 2017, as shown in Figure 3.9, the increase in fathers not claiming paternity benefit year on year is much steeper in sectors such as Accommodation & Food Service Activities (I) and Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing (A) compared to the average rise across all sectors. A much smaller rate of increase is seen for Industry (B-E) while the proportion of fathers not claiming paternity benefit has been flat in Public Administration & Defence (O), which shows very little variation from year to year.
Employees in micro-enterprises were least likely to claim paternity with 66% of fathers not making a claim in 2020, up from 63% in 2019.
Less than 39% of fathers working in large enterprises did not claim paternity benefit in 2020.
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