The Effects of Paid Family and Medical Leave on Employment Stability and Economic Security.
(2012, April). The Effects of Paid Family and Medical Leave on Employment Stability and Economic Security. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress.
Abstract
Though it may seem counterintuitive, providing paid family and medical leave when people cannot work due to caregiving responsibilities helps keep people employed. In the short term it keeps people away from work, but in the long term it reduces the number of people who have to quit their jobs when they need time off to care for a seriously ill family member or when they have a new child. Paid medical leave serves this same purpose for workers who have short-term but serious illnesses that prevent them from working.
The reality is that most workers also have caregiving responsibilities at one time or another. Mothers are breadwinners or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of families and with an aging population, more and more workers need time off to care for an ailing loved one. Together, paid family and medical leave makes it easier for employees facing the need to take time to provide care for a family member to transition back into their jobs.Our analysis in this paper finds that a federal paid family and medical leave program would most likely have positive effects on employment and lifetime income. National data consistently show that access to any form of parental leave, paid or unpaid, makes women more likely to return to work after giving birth. Estimates are that these effects would be largest for less-educated and lower-income families, who currently have the lowest levels of access to any form of leave, paid or unpaid. The benefits would be particularly strong for single mothers, who are more likely to be lower income and who do not have a spouse to take over caregiving responsibilities.
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