abstract: 'Compared to unpaid leave, paid family leave may better help working

  parents balance the competing needs of job and family early in a child''s

  life, among other advantages. Yet the United States remains one of only

  two countries in the world without a statutory national paid maternity

  leave policy, and one of the only high-income countries that doesn''t

  provide access to paid paternity leave for new fathers at the federal

  level.

  In theory, Maya Rossin-Slater and Jenna Stearns write, paid leave can

  benefit families in two ways: by changing the amount of income available

  in the household (and the amount of resources available for the child),

  and by increasing the amount of time parents spend with their children.

  Despite the lack of paid leave at the federal level, several US states

  have their own paid family leave programs, all of which provide partial

  wage replacement during leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted

  child, and aim to cover a broad segment of the workforce through minimal

  eligibility requirements. Rossin-Slater and Stearns review research

  about the effects of these state-level programs, as well as paid leave

  programs in other countries.

  The authors find that paid family leave has a number of benefits. For

  one, compared to unpaid leave, paid family leave increases leave-taking

  rates and leave duration, especially among disadvantaged parents. Paid

  leave programs that range from a few months to up to a year in length

  also appear to improve both infants'' health and mothers'' outcomes in the

  job market. At the same time, the research finds that existing paid

  leave programs have minimal impacts on businesses, suggesting that these

  programs confer benefits to workers and their families at little to no

  cost to their employers.

  Finally, because rising economic inequality in the United States is in

  part driven by disparities in early childhood, the authors argue that

  paid family leave may be one way to level the playing field for children

  from all backgrounds and help improve intergenerational mobility.'
affiliation: 'Rossin-Slater, M (Corresponding Author), Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Hlth
  Policy, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.

  Rossin-Slater, M (Corresponding Author), Stanford Inst Econ Policy Res, Stanford,
  CA 94305 USA.

  Rossin-Slater, M (Corresponding Author), Natl Bur Econ Res, Cambridge, MA 02138
  USA.

  Rossin-Slater, Maya, Stanford Univ, Sch Med, Hlth Policy, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.

  Rossin-Slater, Maya, Stanford Inst Econ Policy Res, Stanford, CA 94305 USA.

  Rossin-Slater, Maya, Natl Bur Econ Res, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA.

  Stearns, Jenna, Univ Calif Davis, Econ, Davis, CA 95616 USA.'
author: Rossin-Slater, Maya and Stearns, Jenna
author_list:
- family: Rossin-Slater
  given: Maya
- family: Stearns
  given: Jenna
da: '2023-09-28'
eissn: 1550-1558
files: []
issn: 1054-8289
journal: FUTURE OF CHILDREN
keywords-plus: 'PAID FAMILY LEAVE; MATERNITY LEAVE; CALIFORNIA; EXPANSIONS; PROGRAM;

  CONSEQUENCES; LEGISLATION; EMPLOYMENT; COVERAGE; POLICIES'
language: English
month: FAL
number: '2'
number-of-cited-references: '59'
orcid-numbers: Rossin-Slater, Maya/0000-0002-8905-2944
pages: 35-51
papis_id: 321fa16b1cbe302bf62bc6e95f59d940
ref: Rossinslater2020timebaby
times-cited: '2'
title: Time On with Baby and Time Off from Work
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000611015200003
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '10'
volume: '30'
web-of-science-categories: 'Family Studies; Health Policy \& Services; Social Sciences,

  Interdisciplinary'
year: '2020'