abstract: 'U.S. federal and state family leave legislation requires employers to

  provide job-protected parental leave for new mothers covered under the

  legislation. In most cases the leave is unpaid, and rarely longer than

  12 weeks in duration. This study evaluates disparities in parental leave

  eligibility, access, and usage across the family income distribution in

  the United States. It also describes the links between leave-taking and

  women''s labor market careers. The focus is especially on low-income

  families, as their leave coverage and ability to afford taking unpaid

  leave is particularly poor. This study shows that the introduction of

  both state and federal legislation increased overall leave coverage,

  leave provision, and leave-taking. For example, the Family and Medical

  Leave Act (FMLA) leads to an increased probability of leave-taking by

  nearly 20 percentage points and increased average leave length by almost

  five weeks across all states. The new policies did not, however, reduce

  gaps between low-and high-income families'' eligibility, leave-taking, or

  leave length. In addition, the FMLA effects on leave-taking were very

  similar across states with and without prior leave legislation, and the

  FMLA did not disproportionately increase leave-taking for women who

  worked in firms and jobs covered by the new legislation, as these women

  were already relatively well covered by other parental leave

  arrangements. (C) 2015 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and

  Management.'
affiliation: 'Kerr, SP (Corresponding Author), WCW, Wellesley Coll, 106 Cent St, Wellesley,
  MA 02481 USA.

  Kerr, Sari Pekkala, WCW, Wellesley Coll, 106 Cent St, Wellesley, MA 02481 USA.'
author: Kerr, Sari Pekkala
author-email: skerr3@wellesley.edu
author_list:
- family: Kerr
  given: Sari Pekkala
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1002/pam.21875
eissn: 1520-6688
files: []
issn: 0276-8739
journal: JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT
keywords-plus: 'EARLY MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT; PAID FAMILY LEAVE; MEDICAL LEAVE; AFFECT

  FERTILITY; UNITED-STATES; CHILD HEALTH; MOTHERS; GAP; PAY; EARNINGS'
language: English
month: WIN
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '83'
orcid-numbers: Kerr, Sari/0000-0003-3454-5335
pages: 117+
papis_id: 1a895cf64c94110dd08116c9acfa5a92
ref: Kerr2016parentalleave
times-cited: '9'
title: 'Parental Leave Legislation and Women''s Work: A Story of Unequal Opportunities'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000372885600007
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '160'
volume: '35'
web-of-science-categories: Economics; Public Administration
year: '2016'