Effect of the 2009 New Jersey Paid Family Leave Policy on Maternal Wellbeing

Background and Purpose: While the United States lacks a national paid parental leave policy, three states – California from 2004, New Jersey from 2009 and Rhode Island from 2014 –have built on existing social insurance programs to ensure that a short period of paid parental leave is available to eligible workers in the period immediately after childbirth.These are important and promising developments with the potential to improve the quality of life of many workers, particularly new mothers, since only 12 per cent of private sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employers and one in four mothers in the US return to work within 10 days of childbirth as they cannot afford more time off , at potentially a great cost to their own as well as their families’ health and wellbeing (Bureau of Labor Statistics Employee Compensations Survey, 2011; Klerman, Daley and Pozniak, 2013). In this paper, I examine the effect of the policy change in New Jersey on women’s subjective wellbeing, a cognitive evaluation of the state or quality of one’s life, taking all things into consideration.

Methods: Using a large, nationally representative sample of adult women from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) annual surveys and random child selection modules from 2005 to 2012, I identify potentially eligible mothers from individual level variation in month-year of child’s birth and state level variation in parental leave policies, and employ a difference in difference research design. Along with overall life satisfaction or life evaluation, I also look at multiple self-reported indicators of wellbeing, such as self-rated general health, physical health, stress, depression and emotional wellbeing and whether adequate social and emotional support is available.

Results: I find no evidence of a significant effect of the 2009 policy change in New Jersey on women’s subjective wellbeing overall, but strong evidence of improvements in women’s physical health. I further find variation in effects in subgroup analyses, with significant positive effects on the life satisfaction of employed single mothers and women from lower-middle income families, as well as significant improvements in the experience of stress, depression and emotional wellbeing for such relatively disadvantaged groups.  

Conclusions and Implications: Findings of this study have important implications for the evidence base regarding US state family leave policies. Firstly, while prior research has established important gains to child health, this study provides evidence of gains to maternal physical health, further strengthening the maternal and child health argument for paid family leave policies. Secondly, compared to studies that have examined substantially more generous family leave policies and found significant positive effects on women’s overall subjective wellbeing, this study finds no significant life satisfaction effects in case of policies that provide only 6 weeks of paid leave and at a partial wage replacement rate. If raising overall quality of life for women and families is a goal of family leave policies, then evidence from this study suggests that such policies would need to be made substantially more generous for noticeable effects on subjective wellbeing.