Paid Family and Medical Leave and Child and Family Wellbeing

Background and purpose: The United States is the only advanced industrialized country without a national policy providing paid family and medical leave. The 1994 FMLA provides only unpaid leave, which low income workers are less likely to be able to take, and to only about 60% of the workforce.  Some employers offer paid family and medical leave (of various kinds) but low income workers and workers of color are less likely to be covered, again leading to inequities in access and usage. In the absence of paid leave, some workers forego leave, while others leave their jobs altogether. Five states have now enacted state level paid family and medical leave laws to address the gap at the federal level. This presentation will describe patterns of leave access and also effects of paid family and medical leave on child and family wellbeing, both overall and in terms of disparities by income and race/ethnicity.

Methods: The presentation will summarize results from new research using an array of datasets including the CPS, ATUS, NHIS, NIS, SIPP, and NLSY. Results on access to paid leave and effects of paid leave (drawing in particular on California’s law) will be obtained from descriptive analyses as well as difference in difference and synthetic control models.

Results: Employer provision of paid family and medical leave is incomplete and uneven. Low income and Hispanic workers are particularly likely to lack coverage. State laws such as California’s are increasing leave-taking and reducing disparities in leave-taking. CA’s law has also led to improvements in maternal mental health and longer breastfeeding, particularly among low income, Black, and Hispanic mothers.

Conclusion and implications: The research shows that paid family and medical leave can raise overall levels of leave-taking and employment, and improve child and maternal health, with particularly large effects for groups not previously covered. Thus, these laws offer a way to not only improve overall wellbeing but also to reduce disparities in wellbeing.