Labor force attachment and maternity leave take-up rates of cohabiting mothers

In recent decades, families in the United States (US) have undergone demographic changes in characteristics such as composition, economic stability, and diversity. Among these trends, one of the most dramatic changes has been in the relative number of households and families that are maintained by heterosexual cohabiting, rather than married, couples. The goal of this paper is to better understand the working and economic lives of cohabiting households. Specifically, do cohabiting couples make different decisions regarding their labor supply relative to their married counterparts? This paper provides insight into this question by analyzing the labor supply decisions of mothers in cohabiting households after the birth of a child, and compares them to their married and single counterparts.

Using panel data from the 1997 Cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth I estimate a Cox proportional hazard model to estimate the rate at which mothers return to work in the year after the birth of a child. I test separate models on different groups of mothers depending on their relationship status in the month of birth, as well as labor force attachment before birth. In addition, to get a more representative sample of mothers in the US, I also use data from the March Current Population Survey Annual Demographic Supplement (CPS). Most regressions in this analysis use a Heckman two-step procedure, which consists of a probit model for an indicator of labor force participation followed by a linear hours worked equation, corrected for sample selection.

Both the panel and the cross sectional analysis show that new mothers in cohabiting households behave differently than their married counterparts when it comes to maternity leave, taking significantly shorter leaves and working more hours in the year of birth. The results also suggest that their partner’s income is not a significant factor in determining the incidence and length of leave, which are significantly different than that of married mothers. However having access to paid leave, such as the California Paid Family Leave program, increases their willingness and ability to take leave.

This research would suggest that the decline of the traditional male-breadwinner, married-couple family structure in the United States makes a paid maternity leave policy even more important in order to give women in nontraditional households access to time off after the birth of a child. This research also gives us important insights into the economic decision making behavior of these nontraditional households.