[South Africa] Paid maternity leave benefits decline as employers reassess parental leave costs

In South Africa, new research has shown the decline in paid maternity leave emerging as one of the clearest signs that employee benefits are being reassessed under cost and compliance pressure, FAnews reports.

The remuneration and reward platform Remchannel’s Employee Benefits Guide reveals that the share of employers offering four months of fully paid maternity leave dropped from 58.5 per cent in 2023 to 41.7 per cent in 2025.

Lindiwe Sebesho - Managing Director of Remchannel - said, “What we are seeing is employers adjusting to a leave framework that has become broader since the Constitutional Court endorsed shared parental leave.

“The implication is that leave design can no longer be centred on historic maternity benefits alone. Employers now have to think more carefully about how the benefits package for a wider employee group balances cost and the retention of female talent.”

Employees are entitled to parental leave under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. It reportedly provides for four consecutive months and ten days of parental leave to be shared by the parents as they choose. But the extent to which employers choose to make that leave fully paid, partially paid or unpaid is changing.

Ms Sebesho stated that the shift may be particularly significant in sectors where workforce planning has historically been built around male-dominated employee bases, as the extension of equal caregiving rights to men and women changes the liability profile more materially than many employers may have anticipated.

“There is a clear move away from standardised paid leave models toward a mix of fully paid, partially paid and unpaid benefits layered over statutory leave entitlements,” she said. “Employers are now reassessing paid leave more deliberately because shared parental leave has expanded, changing the cost and workforce planning assumptions behind the benefit.”

Source: FAnews

(Quotes via original reporting)

In South Africa, new research has shown the decline in paid maternity leave emerging as one of the clearest signs that employee benefits are being reassessed under cost and compliance pressure, FAnews reports.

The remuneration and reward platform Remchannel’s Employee Benefits Guide reveals that the share of employers offering four months of fully paid maternity leave dropped from 58.5 per cent in 2023 to 41.7 per cent in 2025.

Lindiwe Sebesho - Managing Director of Remchannel - said, “What we are seeing is employers adjusting to a leave framework that has become broader since the Constitutional Court endorsed shared parental leave.

“The implication is that leave design can no longer be centred on historic maternity benefits alone. Employers now have to think more carefully about how the benefits package for a wider employee group balances cost and the retention of female talent.”

Employees are entitled to parental leave under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. It reportedly provides for four consecutive months and ten days of parental leave to be shared by the parents as they choose. But the extent to which employers choose to make that leave fully paid, partially paid or unpaid is changing.

Ms Sebesho stated that the shift may be particularly significant in sectors where workforce planning has historically been built around male-dominated employee bases, as the extension of equal caregiving rights to men and women changes the liability profile more materially than many employers may have anticipated.

“There is a clear move away from standardised paid leave models toward a mix of fully paid, partially paid and unpaid benefits layered over statutory leave entitlements,” she said. “Employers are now reassessing paid leave more deliberately because shared parental leave has expanded, changing the cost and workforce planning assumptions behind the benefit.”

Source: FAnews

(Quotes via original reporting)