The low uptake of shared parental leave demonstrates that culture is essential to the success of benefits.

The implementation of shared parental leave (SPL) began a year ago. The plan was for parents to split up the cost of maternity leave so that one partner could spend more time at home with their newborn and the other partner, who would have been responsible for child care, could return to work sooner. It appears that very little SPL has been used, despite all the fanfare this new policy has received since it went into effect in April of last year.