Paid parental leave, or the lack of it, has continued to become a major policy point this year. A lot is at stake and it feels like 2024 is “now or never,” especially now that just about everyone supports paid parental leave, including 80% of Millennials and Gen Z (the largest groups in the workforce), 85% of voters in battleground states, and 96% of voters of color. Despite overwhelming support, only 27% of private employees have access.
The United States remains just one of only a handful of nations without national parental leave protections. So, now’s the time to harness the masses and pass national paid parental leave.
But, is national paid parental leave just a bandaid? What does such an undertaking really look like?
The reality of implementing wide-scale legislation and protections for parents is not as clean cut as supporters would like. When accounting for the political climate, the economy (we’re still recovering from inflation), social tension (we’re looking at you red states), there are still vast limitations to how a national policy will eliminate the inequalities of working parenthood.
Currently, only 9 states and the District of Columbia have active paid family leave (PFL) programs and an additional four states have passed legislation that will roll out programs through May 2026.
The PFL landscape is fragmented and complex, with astronomical differences. Just look at a simple breakdown of weekly benefit amounts (WBA) across existing programs. What the state pays out is a % of salary up to a certain cap, the maximum weekly benefit amount.
Using this, you can calculate the maximum annual salary. And the differences are wild: $52k is the salary cap in Connecticut, while the salary cap in California is $140k.
This tells us that a mom in Connecticut making $100k with only access to CT PFL will receive about 50% of her weekly earnings since she earns far more than the max salary cap of $52k. Can she afford to live on 50% of her income? Not likely.
Before we dive in, let's take a look back at the history of federal legislations for families and parents. The last meaningful legislation passed was the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in 2002 which allows for 12 weeks of unpaid leave for qualified employees (with strict and set parameters for eligibility including tenure, company size, and location). While FMLA was a step in the right direction, the unpaid leave provides little relief and support for families. Families who need it most still cannot afford to take extended leave.
Since then, Democrats have been at the forefront pushing for new policies. In 2013, the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act was introduced. It proposed a progressive payroll tax to fund up to 12 weeks of paid leave for all workers in the United States, including those who are self-employed. It died on the House floor, along with a 2015 proposal, the Strong Families Act.
In 2019, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave (FEPLA) Act became law, marking a significant step forward. FEPLA provides federal employees with up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
This was a win for federal employees but offered no coverage for the 118 million private employees in the U.S., making up 85% of the workforce.
Recent attempts by the Biden Administration have been unable to gain momentum and bipartisan support. In 2023, a $325 billion bill for a comprehensive and permanent paid family and leave program was introduced. The bill proposed up to 12 weeks of paid parental and caregiver leave.
As of January 2024, only one proposed framework for a national parental leave policy has been introduced. Presented by the Paid Family Leave Working Group, the framework lays out four core pillars:
This proposed framework, unfortunately, is incomplete. It does not include eligibility requirements, information on funding and budgeting, implementation and roll-out, and other basics on the infrastructure.
National parental leave may not yield the results advocates expect. While it would codify federal protections for working parents, there's still a ton to unpack about the realistic functioning of a program. Let's break down anticipated limitations, using current PFL programs as a reference.
While no information has been provided on how a federal paid parental leave program will be funded, we can assume it will reflect the current PFL structures: it is insurance that is funded by employees through mandatory payroll deductions. Standardizing the existing structure would mean revamping how existing PFL programs are funded and operated. This raises many questions: will employees who already paid in be reimbursed and how will existing funds be used?
The other large expense is program implementation and infrastructure building. Paid parental leave on a national level - covering upwards of 3.6 million births a year (not including adoptions and fosters) - would require extensive logistical support, leave and claim management services, a portal, a website, resources, a service center, etc. This level of detail will take years to analyze, build out, and test.
This highlights one of the biggest obstacles: the timeline. National paid parental leave will not happen overnight, even in an election year. Given the stance of the GOP towards family-friendly policies (there is no state that has banned abortion that also has a PFL program). On average, it takes four years for PFL to be phased-in after legislation is signed into effect.
This four year roll-out only reflects what has happened in progressive, blue-leaning states with sitting Democratic governors. No ‘red’ state with a sitting Republican governor has approved or proposed a state PFL program. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, every state constitution grants a sitting governor the right to veto a bill passed by the state legislature. We can imagine that a federal paid leave policy would be heavily contested and possibly challenged all the way up to the supreme court, especially given the challenge to Michigan’s PFL law.
In order to pass a federal paid leave policy, lawmakers on both sides of the aisles will need to work together. One of the biggest hurdles will be determining the eligibility of working parents, and defining that language is going to be contentious and likely exclude many working parents. An essential component of paid parental leave will be ensuring it is inclusive of all family configurations, reflects the society we live in today, and is a truly equitable solution for working parents. According to a CAP 2020 survey, only 37% of LGBTQ employees had access to paid parental leave, but 70% of LGBTQ+ employees are or want to be parents.
Without an ability to support all working parents, a national paid parental leave program may still miss the mark and create disparities in treatment, access, recovery, and more between birthing and non-birthing parents.
A recently proposed postpartum proxy voting bill, for example, has such a narrow definition of parent - "a member who has recently given birth" - that many lawmakers would be excluded de facto. While this only applies to lawmakers, it sets the tone for how some may have a limited view of who should, and shouldn't, be covered.
There is true concern that in order to pass a bipartisan bill, lawmakers will have to compromise on the definitions of family and eligible parent(s). Would LGBTQ+ parents be excluded? Would program language be gender-neutral? Will program language only use primary and secondary language? Will adoption and foster be covered?
Due to the complicated application process and system, leave claims are routinely denied. Massachusetts denied 20% of claims in its first full year and Rhode Island denied around 10% of all claims. In an extreme example, when adjusted to remove claims filed for COVID-19 recovery, Connecticut denied 30% of all claims. The number one reason claims are denied is due to missing paperwork and incomplete applications. While these are easy corrections, applicants still have to appeal and wait to hear back. (It’s estimated that less than half of all applicants appeal their decision.)
During this time, the applicant goes without pay. So, unless their employer subsidies their salary, eligible employees are not getting the support they need.
Without a user-friendly experience - for native English speakers and non-speakers alike - and an easy-to-navigate process (have you seen how complicated the pay calculators are?!), we will continue to see these problems. And the parents most adversely affected will be the low-wage workers, non-English speakers, and those without the resources to afford to go without pay. Instead, eligible working parents who experience these denials and delays will be forced back to work prematurely, having relied on a system that wasn’t built for easy use.
As of October 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 600,000 claims for paternity and maternity leave nationwide, the highest figure since reporting began in 1993. With upwards of 3.6 million babies born in a single year, this 30-year figure accounts for less than 1% of all children born since records were initiated in 1993, and less than 10% of all eligible employees within PFL states.
Despite being the oldest PFL program in the country, implemented in July 2004, California’s PFL utilization does not match advocates and lawmakers expectations. According to publicly available data, in 2020 only 14% of eligible Californians making $20,000 or lower used the program. Utilization is actually the highest among the highest earnings, sparking debate about who is truly benefitting from these programs. Utilization was 3x for earners between $80k - $99,999 and 4x for those making over $100,000.
While the payment rate for very low wage earners was temporarily increased from 55% of earnings to 70% of earnings, but this was a short lived adjustment. Current earning caps are insufficient and create further economic and social divides, forcing low-wage workers (who are largely parents of color) back to work.
There are numerous barriers to entry that make access to PFL extremely difficult for eligible parents. The communities and income brackets that most need PFL, including low earning workers, are often unaware or ineligible for programs.
First, many low-wage workers, who are disproportionately people of color, may not work enough hours to qualify for state programs. According to the Urban Institute, only 22.3% of part-time workers have access to paid leave due to the birth or adoption of a child. In addition to stringent eligibility requirements, almost 30% of eligible workers reported not even knowing if they had access to any form of paid leave. Research on participation rates consistently demonstrates a disproportionate “lack of awareness of leave benefits” among Black and Latinx eligible employees.
There is no indication that federal paid parental leave would offer or extend protections for part-time and variable hour workers. And given the consistent lack of participation by communities of color, and low-wage workers, there is little insight on how the federal government will improve rollout on a federal level. (We can reference the botched rollout of recent federal initiatives as a case study.)
To effectively create change in the most vulnerable communities who need access to paid parental leave, the federal government will need a high-touch implementation strategy that meets the needs of its most vulnerable users (technology access, assistance with applications, language barriers, etc.).
A national paid parental leave law would codify workers’ rights and institute the requirement for a national framework to support working parents. And the U.S. needs this!
We believe that national paid parental leave is necessary and are proponents of widespread change. But, with such little information available on how/what/when a national paid parental leave policy would operate, we don't believe working parents and communities should have to wait indefinitely.
Parents need support now, not in 4, 5, 6 years. Parents should not have to pick between caring for their child or their next paycheck. Parents should not be forced back to work prematurely.
And, parents deserve parental leave whether they birth, adopt or foster, regardless of what their family unit looks like. They deserve equitable, gender-neutral coverage. They deserve parental leave now.
We are solving the paid parental leave crisis in the United States. Yup, we said it. Through Parento, employers can roll-out up to 16 weeks at up to 100% of paid leave as soon as next week.
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