Facebook and Netflix made headlines recently when they announced generous paternity leave provisions: four months at Facebook and unlimited time off during the first year of a child’s life (for many, though not all, employees) at Netflix. Microsoft indicates that it, too, will expand its paternity leave benefit.

While it’s starting to catch on as a popular corporate perk, paid paternity leave is more complicated than, say, changing an office dress code to business casual, as so many companies did during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Baseball fans will recall the flak received by New York Mets second basemen Daniel Murphy when he opted to miss the first two games of the 2014 season because his wife had just given birth.

Indeed, only three states (California, New Jersey and Rhode Island) currently require some paid parental leave for all new parents (funded by payroll taxes) and just 17% of employers surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offer any paid paternity leave. according to an article from The New York Times from August.

Most of the companies that do offer it don’t yet provide new mothers and fathers with equal time off; in many cases, one or the other parent needs to be designated the “primary caregiver,” with the secondary caregiver afforded less paid time away from work. New mothers are typically extended the option of additional leave for medical reasons. Same-sex couples who become parents raise a potentially thorny issue along those lines and may play a role in expediting parity as time goes on. Interestingly, the small pool of new fathers taking leave from the workplace for more than two weeks may be starting to experience workplace challenges akin to what many working mothers encountered 30 or 40 years ago, which begs the question, Will the stigma of a “daddy track” accompany paid time off for new dads?

Equal Time for Equal Parenting

Former CNN reporter Josh Levs actually sued his then-employer in 2013 for providing unequal time off for new moms and dads following the birth of his third child. At the time, CNN (part of Time Warner) provided 10 weeks of paid parental leave for biological mothers and for adoptive parents of either sex, but only two weeks for biological fathers.

Levs asked his employer to modify their policy so that he could have more paid time off with his family. When the company refused, he took his case to the EEOC, claiming discrimination based on sex as a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and hired the high-profile Washington, DC law firm of Boies Schiller to represent him.

It was in litigation for two years, but the case was recently settled. While the terms have not been disclosed, CNN did change its parental-leave policy this year to provide equal time off for parents of either gender following the birth of a child. Biological moms can still receive additional medical leave, but the action is likely to set a precedent for dads who want equal time (see a related article from Corporate Counsel).

Time to 'Man Up,' Dads

Today’s younger generation of fathers, like Josh Levs, has been drawing considerable attention in the media and the blogosphere for wanting more parental leave as a corporate benefit. However, research from Boston College reveals that, even when new dads are afforded time off from work, they take only one day for every month off that new mothers take, according to a recent article from Money.

Forty-two percent of them return to work after just one week at home, and 81% after two weeks. The reason appears to have as much to do with the stigma still affixed to fathers who want to put their family life ahead of their work life as it does with the actual corporate limits to paid paternity leave.

The author of the Money blog, himself a recent father who regrets only having taken two weeks off to bond with his new daughter, offered some practical tips for other dads to help them advocate for more paid time off without jeopardizing their careers, including:

• Lay the groundwork. Help create a hand-off for your job to co-workers and superiors well before your scheduled leave. This will minimize the disruption in the workplace that invariably results when someone goes out on leave.
• Set a good example. This is especially important if you’re in a position of responsibility. The best thing that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently announced that he and his wife are expecting their first child, can do to be a role model for his colleagues (male and female) is to take his entire parental-leave allocation.
• Tell your story. Let your colleagues know that you’re doing half the baby work at home, and not just letting your wife do it all while you kick back. This can help reduce time-worn parenting stereotypes.  

As it stands, the anecdotes of new fathers reaping the benefits of bonding with their children and working together with their spouses to adjust to parenthood greatly outweigh the stories of regretful dads itching to get back to the office shortly after their children are born. A national cry for more paid paternal leave might also help galvanize the movement among working parents/children of elderly parents to lobby for more paid family leave – for childcare and/or elder care – both in the boardroom and in the courtroom.