Effect of state paid family leave policies on the inequalities in maternity leave usage in the U.S.

Many American families have a difficult time balancing their obligations at work with their responsibilities at home. This is especially true after the birth of a child. Governments around the world have passed legislation to make these difficult times easier for workers by mandating that employers provide paid maternity leave to their employees. However, the United States is a notable exception. The United States is currently the only industrialized nation that does not have a universal paid maternity leave program. Currently, US workers that qualify for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for the job protection guarantee must rely on employer provided benefits in order to be paid during any leave taken by new mothers. Consequently, the ability to take leave and the length of leave available is distributed very unequally among different groups of workers. Past research has shown that mothers from disadvantaged groups, such as those from low-income households, minorities, and single mothers take less maternity leave because they are less likely to have access to paid leave through their employers and their reduced ability to afford unpaid leave. Recently many states, such as California, have passed their own paid family leave programs that would provide virtually all working mothers in the state with access to wage replacement during any maternity leave taken. This research uses data from the March Current Population Survey and several standard difference-in-difference models, as well as synthetic difference-in-difference regression analyses to explore the impact of California’s Paid Family Leave program on different subgroups of mothers. Preliminary results show that the state’s near universal paid family leave program reduced the leave inequality experienced by single-mothers, but has done little to reduce the leave gap experienced by low income mothers.