Cities and states across America are
leading the push for paid family leave policies, as calls for national
legislation seem to grow louder every day. The United States is one of only two
developed countries in the world that does not provide its citizens any form of
federal paid family and medical leave [1]. Given that America’s workforce is now comprised of predominantly
dual-earner households [2] where a majority of mothers with young children are
active contributors to the labor force [3], it is no surprise that debates in
favor of paid family leave policies are gaining traction.
The current national leave policy, known
as the federal Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA), offers American workers 12 weeks of
unpaid leave to care for newborns or seriously ill family members (in companies
of 50 or more employees). While these unpaid leave provisions are job-secured,
they are not mandated and only cover 60% of the workforce.[4] Those who cannot afford to miss
work, but must do so in order care for a sick child or welcome a new baby into
the world, know that every day away from work incurs huge economic losses for
their family. Each year in the US, families lose billions of dollars in wages
by taking unpaid leave or reducing their time to care for family members.[5]
Paid
family leave policies allow families to forgo the impossible choice between an
early return to work at the cost of family member wellbeing and a later return
to work at the cost of financial wellbeing. Other than stabilizing earnings
during critical moments, paid family leave policies are linked to other
positive outcomes. Studies suggest that families with access to paid family
leave policies experience lower rates of infant mortality,[6] higher rates of immunization
[7] and higher rates of breastfeeding [8]. The positive impacts of parental
leave on child developmental outcomes are maximized when the leave is paid and
provided in a job-secure context [9].
Paid
family leave policies have also been linked to both mothers staying in the
workforce longer and mothers being better connected to the workforce, which is
associated with higher earnings [10]. Findings further show that fathers who
are able to use their paid leave provisions, felt they developed a closer
relationship with their infants [11], were 25 percent more likely to change
diapers and 19 percent more likely to get up at night to take care of their babies
[12].
Outside
of the benefits for families, flexible paid leave policies have also been
linked to empirically-demonstrated benefits on employee hiring, retention, and morale
[13]. Policies that support families are regularly cited as the single most
important factor in attracting and retaining employees [14].
Current
Paid Leave Policies
Despite the lack of a paid family leave
policy at the national level, the good news is that many states have shouldered
the responsibility where the federal government hasn’t. Legislatures in CA, MA,
NY, NJ, RI, and WA have recently passed sweeping paid parental leave
legislation into law.
Jane Waldfogel, Compton Foundation Centennial Professor of Social Work for the Prevention of Children’s and Youth Problems at Columbia School of Social Work, is a leading researcher on
paid family leave policies in the U.S. She and her team have taken a specific look
at California’s Paid Family Leave law (CA-PFL) and evaluated its reception by employers
and employees across the state. CA-PFL
was originally passed in 2002 and implemented in 2004. The law is groundbreaking in that it marked
the first time a state mandated and administered a paid family leave program,
making paid parental leave available to both fathers and mothers.
The researchers found that after the
enactment of the law, California mothers and fathers took more
leave overall, and fathers took more father-only and joint leave [15]. Compared to California fathers
prior to the passage of the act, Waldfogel, et al identified a 46% increase in
the likelihood of fathers taking family leave after the birth of their child.
While this statistic represents a small overall increase in the number of days
of leave taken (from approximately one week to 1.5 weeks), the increase in the
intended behavior is significant. According to Waldfogel, et al, in 2013 less
than 2% of employed men with children under the age of one in the United States
reported being on leave [16].
The
importance of the discovery that more parents, and especially fathers, took
more parental leave as a result of this law cannot be overstated. It proves
that these
laws can produce the intended outcomes, giving parents more time at home to
bond with and take care of their children without the worry of missing full
paychecks. For
low-income parents without prior access to paid leave through their employers,
the law is particularly impactful. For the first time, they possess the same
ability to care for their families as their higher-income peers.
To be
sure, the law is not a panacea. Funding
for the legislation is administered by the State Disability Insurance program,
which employees pay into to receive Paid Family Leave (PFL)[JW1]. The PFL replaces
70% of a low-income employee’s wages and 60% of high-income earners’ wages over
six weeks (up from 55% across the board when the law was first passed) [17]. Waldfogel’s research suggests that 55% of
replaced wages might not have been enough to induce fathers to take the full
six weeks of leave, so it will be important to investigate any increase in the
likelihood of fathers taking leave in California due to increasing these measures. It will also be critical to assess the
increase in the amount of leave taken as a result of the wage replacement
increase in 2018.
The
Harvard Kennedy School Women and Public Policy Program hosted Waldfogel as a guest lecturer in March 2019. The subject of her seminar was exploring the
impact of paid family leave on employers [18]. [JW2] She and her team surveyed employers in Rhode Island,
New Jersey, and New York – three states that passed and implemented paid family
leave laws. They found that across a range of industries and the spectrum of business
size, fully two thirds of firms were supportive of paid family leave—busting the myth that these policies
have detrimental impact on small businesses [19].
Final Recommendations for Paid Family and Medical
Leave
Despite small shortfalls in the paid
family leave wage replacement, the California Paid Family Leave act is an
important model for the rest of the country.
First, 62% of American workers said they have had to or are very likely to
have to take time off from work for a family or medical reason [20]. Many of those workers are low-income earners
who say they cannot afford to forego their salary during that time. Paid family
leave helps low-income workers and their families by allowing parents to take
six weeks of paid family leave, giving them the ability to bond as a family or
take care of a sick family member without the stress of having to choose
between family and work [21]. Where men remain the primary breadwinners, even
in dual-income families, the availability of paid leave for men is particularly
important [22]. Second, through our
research on other paid family leave models, the Insurance Program model appears to be
a best practice. Insurance Programs have gained the approval of
businesses and employees alike and could have better[JW3] chance at
becoming law than state-only or employer-only funded plans [23]. Finally, by enacting a paid family and
medical leave policy rather than just parental leave, the law covers more
workers making the appeal and the access to leave more comprehensive—across
gender and life events. We believe these factors make for best policy and
practice and encourage other states to adopt similar models.
[1] International Labor Organization “Maternity and Paternity at Work”
2014.
[2] The Rise in Dual Income Households.
Pew Research Center, 2012. https://www.pewresearch.org/ft_dual-income-households-1960-2012-2/
[3] US
Department of Labor: Beareau of Labor Statistics. Women in the Labor Force: A
databook. November 20167. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-databook/2017/home.htm
[4] Kurani et. al, “Paid Family Leave and
Sick Days in the U.S.: Findings from the 2016 Kaiser/HRET Employer Health Benefits Survey” (2017). https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/paid-family-leave-and-sick-days-in-the-u-s-findings-from-the-2016-kaiser-hret-employer-health-benefits-survey/
[5] Glynn, S. & Corley, D. “The Cost of
Work-Family Policy Inaction Quantifying
the Costs Families Currently Face as a
Result of Lacking U.S. Work-Family Policies.” September, 2016. https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/22060013/CostOfWorkFamilyPolicyInaction-report.pdf
[6] Ruhm, C. “Parental leave and child health.” 2000. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629600000473
[7] O’Brien, M. “Fathers, Parental Leave Policies, and Infant Quality of
Life: International Perspectives and Policy Impacts.”
[8] Galtry, J. 2003. The impact on breastfeeding of labour market policy
and practice in Ireland, Sweden, and the USA. Social Science and Medicine
57:167-77.
[9] O’Brien, M. “Fathers, Parental Leave Policies, and Infant Quality of
Life: International Perspectives and Policy Impacts.”
[10] Houser, L. & Vartanian, T. A Report from the Center for Women and
Work, Pay Matters: The Positive Economic Impacts of Paid Family Leave for
Families, Businesses and the Public. 2012. http://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/workplace/other/pay-matters.pdf
[11] Huttunen’s (1996) as cited in O’Brien, 2007
[12] Tanaka and Waldfogel, 2007 as cited in
O’Briend, 2007
[13] Victoria Budson’s Remarks. Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee,
Meeting on Paid Leave. March 18, 2015.
[14]The Council of Economic Advisors “The
Economics of Paid and Unpaid Leave” 2014. http://whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/doc/leave_report_final.pdf
[15]
Bartel, A. P., Rossin-Slater, M., Ruhm, C. J., Stearns, J., & Waldfogel, J.
(2018). Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in
Dual-Earner Households. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 37(1)
[16]
Ibid
[17] http://www.capradio.org/articles/2017/12/26/california-increasing-parental-leave-benefits-in-2018/
[18]
Jane Waldfogel’s Remarks. Women and
Public Policy Program Seminar: Paid Family and Medical Leave: What Are We
Learning from Surveys of Employers? March 28, 2019.
[19]
Ibid.
[20]
Horowitz, J., Parker, K., Graf, N., & Livingston, G. Americans Widely
Support Paid Family and Medical Leave, but Differ Over Specific Policies. Pew
Research Center, 2017. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/03/23/americans-widely-support-paid-family-and-medical-leave-but-differ-over-specific-policies/
[21]
Ibid.
[22]
Bartel, A. P., Rossin-Slater, M., Ruhm, C. J., Stearns, J., & Waldfogel, J.
(2018). Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in
Dual-Earner Households. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 37(1)
