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How Hong Kong’s parental leave policy deepens the bias against hiring women
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Equal parental leave is an important step in solving gendered hiring bias in Hong Kong. As reported in your paper, recent research by the Equal Opportunities Commission has showed widespread gender bias among those responsible for hiring in Hong Kong firms (“Half of Hong Kong employers do not want to hire women with children, study finds”, August 23).
Much of this bias appears to be motivated by the perception among employers that women will take on a greater share of child-rearing responsibilities and thus have less time to focus on their career.
Regardless of whether it is true, this belief is reinforced by official Hong Kong parental leave policies. By granting women 10 weeks of parental leave, while only granting men three days, the current leave regime creates perverse incentives that reward biased hiring practices.
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Those in charge of hiring decisions can know for sure that, although men and women are equally likely to become parents, if and when this occurs, fathers will only be out of the office for a few days, whereas mothers will miss months of work.
Taxpayer-subsidised maternity leave is questionable
Other jurisdictions have responded to this policy failure by instituting “use it or lose it” paternal leave, which incentivises fathers to take similar amounts of parental leave as mothers.
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