Paid Leave Across the States: Access, Utilization, and Employment Outcomes

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

In the absence of a federal paid family and medical leave policy, states have emerged as the primary laboratories for paid leave legislation, producing a patchwork of programs that vary widely in design, generosity, and implementation. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted comprehensive, mandatory programs providing partial wage replacement and, in some cases, job protection, while an additional ten states offer paid family leave through voluntary, private insurance systems. This variation creates both a challenge for equitable access and a rich opportunity to study how policy design shapes program access and worker outcomes. The four papers in this panel leverage this state-level variation to examine paid leave along two critical dimensions: who can access and use paid leave, and how leave policies affect employment outcomes.

The first two papers focus on access and utilization. The first paper investigates a troubling trend in New Hampshire, a state that has opted for a voluntary rather than mandatory approach. Workers' access to paid parental leave declined from 50 percent in 2016 to 38 percent in 2024 — running counter to national trends. Using data from the Granite State Poll, the authors identify the workers most affected and examine the factors driving this erosion of coverage. The second paper turns from whether workers have access to whether they can effectively use it, recognizing that leave policies are often underutilized due to limited awareness and unsupportive workplace cultures. Using a cluster-randomized controlled trial at a large public university in Oregon, a state with a newly adopted mandatory paid leave law, the authors evaluate a novel supervisor training designed to foster leave-supportive behaviors and assess its impact on employee outcomes including leave use, job satisfaction, and turnover intention.

The third and fourth papers examine the employment effects of paid leave policies. The third paper focuses on a critical but understudied feature of program design: job protection. Using Washington State administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, the authors estimate the causal impact of job protection eligibility on leave take-up and post-leave employment. Descriptive findings suggest that job protection is associated with increases in both the likelihood of taking leave and remaining employed afterward. The fourth paper examines California's Paid Family Leave program — the nation's first — over two decades. Using American Community Survey data and a triple-differences approach, the authors find that maternal employment and hours gains persist until the youngest child reaches school age, and that effects appear larger for later cohorts, suggesting benefits may grow as programs become established.

Taken together, these papers demonstrate how state policy choices — from mandates versus voluntary coverage to workplace practices and job protection provisions — shape access to paid leave and its employment effects. The panel will feature discussion from two experts in this field, Katherine Wen (Vanderbilt University) and Ilaria D'Angelis (University of Massachusetts Boston).

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Chair

• Amelia Hawkins, Brandeis University

Discussants

• Katherine J Wen, Vanderbilt University

• Ilaria D'Angelis, University of Massachusetts at Boston

Organizer

• Jiwan Lee, Brown University

Individual Presentations

• Factors influencing the decline in paid parental leave in New Hampshire, 2016-2024 - Presenting Author: KRISTIN SMITH, Dartmouth College

• Training Supervisors to Support Paid Leave: Evidence from a Randomized Workplace Intervention - Presenting Author: Julia M. Goodman, OHSU/Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences

• The Impact of Job Protection on Paid Leave Use and Post-Leave Employment: Evidence from Administrative Data - Presenting Author: Tom Lindman, Harvard University

• Beyond the Early Years: Long-Term Effects of California's Paid Family Leave on Mothers' Employment and Earnings - Presenting Author: Jiyoon Kim, Bryn Mawr College