HR decision-makers significantly underestimated the share of men taking leave to care for family members, while overestimating the proportion of women doing so, according to a 2026 report from The Standard.
The report, Leave Perception by Gender: What HR Isn’t Seeing About Absence for Women and Men, found that HR respondents estimated 6% of men took leave to care for a loved one’s physical health. Among employees surveyed, 71% of men reported taking such leave. For women, HR estimated 60%, compared with 48% reported by employees.
The findings highlight a gap between HR’s perceptions of leave use and employees’ self-reported experiences, raising questions about how employers communicate and administer leave benefits.
The Standard surveyed 509 HR decision-makers and 501 employees through third-party research firms in early 2026. The findings are based on survey responses and should be interpreted in light of the sample sizes and the questions asked.
Differences extend beyond caregiving
The report identified gaps between HR estimates and employee responses across several types of leave.
For leave related to employees’ own physical health, HR respondents estimated that 34% of women and 14% of men took leave. Employees reported lower use among women, at 23%, but higher use among men, at 27%.
Mental health leave showed a different pattern. HR respondents estimated that 44% of women took this type of leave, while 5% of women surveyed reported doing so. For men, HR estimated 9%, compared with 13% reported by male employees.
The figures reflect a difference between HR’s estimates and employees’ self-reported experiences; they do not, by themselves, establish the actual prevalence of leave use across the wider workforce.
Parental leave perceptions also differ
The report found another substantial gap in perceptions of leave for pregnancy or bonding with a new child.
HR respondents estimated that 88% of women and 1% of men took this type of leave. Employees reported 33% for women and 22% for men.
The results suggest that assumptions about which employees use particular leave benefits may not reflect the experiences reported by workers themselves.
Leave can also be recorded across different programmes, including the US Family and Medical Leave Act, state paid family and medical leave schemes, employer-provided paid time off and other leave arrangements. These differences can make it difficult to build a complete picture from administrative records alone.
Implications for HR and benefits communication
The Standard said the findings point to a need for employers to review their leave strategies using workforce data rather than relying on assumptions about who needs or uses particular benefits.
For HR teams, this may include checking how leave options are explained in benefits materials, whether managers understand the policies available to employees and whether reporting systems capture different forms of leave consistently.
The findings also raise questions about how caregiving responsibilities are represented in workplace communication. If benefits information primarily presents caregiving as an issue for women, employees may not recognise the support available to men who need time away from work to care for family members.
However, the survey does not establish why the differences in responses occurred. Further research would be needed to determine how much reflects policy awareness, differences in the types of leave being counted or other factors.
“The story on leave for men and women isn’t what HR professionals think it is,” said Brad Yoder, assistant vice president of life, supplemental and disability claims at The Standard.
The report provides a reminder that employee surveys and carefully reviewed leave data can help HR teams test assumptions about benefit use and identify where communication or policy administration may need closer attention.
Source: The Standard - Leave Perception by Gender: What HR Isn’t Seeing About Absence for Women and Men
