Momentum Institute: Fathers strongly shift parental leave into the summer months

Clear seasonal clustering among fathers

The least popular months, on the other hand, are October, November, and December, when the average was between 2,590 and 2,760 fathers. This means the number of fathers on parental leave in midsummer is roughly a quarter higher than in winter.

This seasonal pattern does not appear among mothers: in the summer months, an average of 73,560 women received childcare allowance, and in the remaining months the figure was even slightly higher at 74,700. The seasonal clustering is therefore a phenomenon that appears in the data almost exclusively among fathers.

Momentum economist Sophie Achleitner told APA: "Das sei kein österreichisches Phänomen". The concentration of paternity leave in the summer months can be observed internationally and is explained, among other things, by operational workflows, school holidays, and better compatibility with working life.

Mothers show no summer pattern

It is also striking when men take parental leave — namely, most often in the summer months. This finding points to a still strongly gender-specific division of career interruptions within families.

Parental leave in Austria is still mainly a women's issue. The share of men among persons on childcare leave is 18.8 percent. This means that not even one in five parents taking parental leave — that is, receiving childcare allowance at all — is the father.

Share of fathers at 18.8 percent

The most recent data is from 2023, when the share stood at 18.8 percent. Compared with the peak of 20.4 percent in 2017, the rate has declined; after a dip, the figure has been rising again since 2021.

As the union-affiliated Momentum Institute analyzed on the occasion of Father's Day on Sunday, the share of fathers who take parental leave at all has been relatively stable for years, but at a low level. A substantial increase has so far not been achieved politically.

Only nine percent of men who take parental leave do so for longer than six months. Overall, according to the Momentum Institute, this is the case for not even one percent of couples. Parental leave periods beyond half a year are therefore rare among fathers.

Longer parental leave among fathers is the exception

AK expert Veronika Adensamer, who presented the study results, summed it up in a catchy formula: those who take parental leave for longer than half a year "muss man schon 'mit der Lupe suchen'". The Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer) also observes that longer career interruptions for childcare are becoming increasingly rare among men.

The Institute cites data from the Ministry of Social Affairs. On this basis, the analysis concludes that a mere statistical increase in paternity leave days is not enough to permanently change the division of care work.

Those who want equality must pull paternity leave out of the exception corner, Achleitner emphasizes. The think tank therefore advocates mandatory paternity leave and a working world in which this is a matter of course.

Call for mandatory paternity leave

The experts point out that numerous studies show that longer paternity leave has a positive effect on the distribution of care work — well beyond the child's first months and years of life. Effects can still be measured during primary school.

In the concrete Austrian context, this means: as long as fathers place their parental leave primarily in July and return to work after a few weeks, the main burden of childcare months remains with the mothers. The figures from the Ministry of Social Affairs paint a clear picture here.

The recently published Re-entry Monitor of the Chamber of Labour, which coincides with Father's Day, comes to a similar finding: 18.8 percent of fathers of the 2023 birth cohort received any childcare allowance at all, meaning they took parental leave.

The combination of a low participation rate, short duration, and seasonal clustering suggests to the experts that parental leave for fathers is still organized more as an exception than as the norm. Against this backdrop, the call for a mandatory regulation is gaining weight.

Achleitner sees mandatory paternity leave as the lever to break up the existing unequal distribution. Only when uptake is no longer negotiable for men can a new normality also establish itself in companies, according to the Momentum Institute's argument.