Dads enjoy New Year baby bounce

Proud dads have an extra reason to celebrate New Year because in Spain any baby born from New Year’s Day entitles them to paid paternity leave of 12 weeks.

Pushing for equality between the sexes has seen a bounce of four extra weeks for fathers - 2021 will see both parents legally entitled to a 16 week break from the grindstone.

Across the world, the first baby born on January 1 is a guaranteed and traditional photo opportunity for newspapers but the start of the decade brings an extra cause for celebration for couples.

As New Year’s Eve approached, the press in Spain featured a light-hearted look at mums expecting to give birth around the deadline and their hopes to hang on into 2020 and new entitlement for their partners. Paternity leave has been on the up for several years. In July 2018, it went from four to five weeks - in April that was raised to eight weeks and January marks the latest bonanza.

The new allowance will cost public coffers some €336 million -new fathers get 100% salary during their time away from work, however, they cannot gift their partner any unwanted time off.

A Royal Decree rang the change after the failure of Prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s proposed 2019 budget; the government aimed for the 'progressive equalisation of paternity leave with maternity leave' and was inspired by measures to 'guarantee equal treatment and opportunities between men and women' in employment. However, reports also quoted some fathers who would not 'dream' of abandoning their posts for the full quota, despite it being a valuable time to bond with new son or daughter.