Job Protection during Paid Leave: Evidence from Washington State on Access and Take-up

• In Event: Broadening the Evidence on State Paid Leave Access and Outcomes

Abstract

Research demonstrates that paid leave supports the economic stability and health of working families  (Bana, Bedard, and Rossin-Slater 2020; Bullinger 2019). However, access to job-protected leave in the United States is stratified by occupation, income, and race, raising equity concerns (Heymann et al. 2021). State paid leave programs offer job protection to some, but not all, leave takers. For example, The Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave program allows workers to take 12 weeks of paid leave to care for children and family members or recover from medical conditions. Individuals must work 820 hours during four of the past five quarters to be eligible for paid leave. Job protection is provided to leave takers if they have been employed with the same employer for 12 months or more, worked 1,250 hours or more, and the employer has 50 or more employees in the state. Our study is the first to use program data to estimate job protection rates among workers and how job protection relates to paid leave take-up and employment after leave.

We used Washington paid leave program data on quarterly hours worked, quarterly wages, paid leave application, and paid leave receipt from Q1 2019 through Q2 2023 for all jobs in Washington from which workers could potentially take leave. Our analysis sample includes all leave-eligible workers during the sample window (n=3.8 million). To estimate job protection status, we produced indicators of paid leave eligibility and job protection for all workers in the state. Next, we estimated the relationship between job protection and paid leave take up and post-leave employment using Generalized Estimating Equations. Leave use models adjusted for wages, hours worked, and industry (NAICS sector) over the preceding year, and include quarter fixed effects. Post-leave employment models adjust for gender, race/ethnicity, pre-leave wages, pre-leave hours worked, industry (NAICS sector), and quarter fixed effects.

We estimate that 53% percent of paid leave-eligible Washington workers would be job protected if they took leave. Job protection rates vary substantially by earnings, with 15% of workers in the lowest earned income quintile being job protected, compared to 70% of workers in the top wage quintile. Job protection was associated with a 64% increase (β=0.69; CI: 0.67, 0.70) increase in the likelihood of taking leave. Among leave users, job protection was associated with a 3.3 (CI: 3.0, 3.5) percentage point increase in the likelihood of being employed following leave. Leave-eligible lower wage workers were less likely to use paid leave regardless of job protection status and job protection was associated with a smaller increase in paid leave use (figure 1).

Differences in job protection rates by earnings and sector mean that access to job protected paid leave is inequitably distributed to Washington workers. The results have been used to pass a law in Washington to expand job protection eligibility.

Figure 1: Probability of Paid Leave Uptake by Job Protection Status and Wage Quintile

 

Authors

• Thomas Lindman, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Heather D Hill, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Co-Author