Labour will significantly boost paternity leave if it wins the election - doubling to four weeks the time fathers can take off and adding more than £100 a week to match the minimum wage.
The plans are expected to cost the taxpayer at least £150m a year if they succeed in raising the take-up by around a quarter, an amount the party says would be more than offset by savings in tax credits from extending free childcare.
Labour is launching what it has dubbed "Father's Month" as part of a coordinated push of family-friendly policies.
Leader Ed Miliband contrasted the paternity leave reform with the Conservative promise of a tax break for married couples.
"The Tories want to spend £700m on what they call a married couple's allowance but which in fact will go to just one in five families with children," he said.
"Instead, at the heart of Labour's plan is the belief that Britain succeeds when modern working families succeed.
"That means giving dads, as well as mums, the chance to spend more time at home in those crucial weeks after babies have been born."
Enacting the reforms, which were first proposed by the left-leaning IPPR think tank last year, would benefit up to 400,000 families a year, the party said.
Under the current rules, new fathers qualify for a statutory £138.18 a week, equivalent to £3.45 an hour for a 40-hour week.
Employers are encouraged to make up the gap between this and the employee's usual pay.
But only just over half of new fathers (55%) currently take it up.
Increasing the taxpayer-funded contribution to the minimum wage level would increase take-up to around 70%, the IPPR estimates.
This would cost the Treasury around £150m in 2015/16.
Labour also said House of Commons figures show its policy of extending free childcare to three and four-year-olds - funded by a levy on the banks - would save "significantly" more in tax credits than the cost of the increased paternity pay.
"The modern British family needs government to be more flexible in what it does to help," Mr Miliband said.
"Thanks to the last Labour government, fathers have two weeks' paid paternity leave.
"Millions of families have benefited, with parents saying this has helped them support each other, share caring responsibilities and bond with their children.
"But the money isn't great - and too many dads don't take up their rights because they feel they have to go back to work so they can provide for their family."
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