Richard Branson offers parents incredibly generous parental pay

Richard Branson is offering employees at Virgin the most generous parental leave deal in the country. Those who have been with the company for four years will be able to take their child's first year off work - at full pay.

Every company in the UK has been revisiting their rules on parental leave, because since April they have had to follow new legislation giving mums and dads up to 50 weeks off in the first year of their child's life - which they can share between them in any way they choose.

However, Branson announced that Virgin will go far further than the statutory minimum. Mums and dads who work for the company will be able to take a year's parental leave - at full pay. Those who have been with the company for two years or less will get 25% of their salary while they are on leave - with those who have worked at Virgin between two and four years getting increasing percentages of pay. This is strikingly different from the statutory minimum which is £139.58 or 90% of pay, whichever is lower.

Branson said in a statement: "If you take care of your employees they will take care of your business. As a father and now a granddad to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child's life is but also how much hard work it takes."
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Gender equality?

This isn't quite as generous as it first seems, because the rules only apply to employees at Virgin Management - the investment and brand licensing arm of the company - which has 140 staff members.

However, for those members of staff who are able to take advantage, it's a real step towards gender equality. When employees only get a small percentage of their pay, couples usually decide that the higher earner needs to stay at work while the lower earner takes time off to care for the baby. In most cases the higher earner is the man. Now with men and women at Virgin able to keep 100% of their pay, there's no financial incentive to stick to traditional gender stereotypes - so couples may choose to divide parental leave more equally.

It remains to be seen whether this makes any difference. A study by YouGov earlier this year asked people who should have responsibility for looking after the children - assuming both parents earn the same. While 53% of people said it should be shared equally, and 22% said each parent should be able to choose according to their own circumstances, 22% still said the mother always ought to have the responsibility, and just 4% said it should be down to the father.

Given the fact that just two out of three new fathers take their employers up on the offer of two weeks of paternity leave after the birth of their child, can we really expect more to leap at the chance of taking a whole year off?

But what do you think? Would you share parental leave, and would this offer of 100% of your pay for the entire year make all the difference? Let us know in the comments.

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