{"id":3446,"date":"2021-01-29T16:53:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-journal-of-law-and-public-policy.pantheonsite.io\/?p=3446"},"modified":"2021-01-29T16:53:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:53:44","slug":"privilege-progress-and-paid-family-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/2021\/01\/29\/privilege-progress-and-paid-family-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Privilege, Progress, and Paid Family Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Source<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United\nStates has an embarrassing\u2014and for many families, financially, physically, and\nemotionally devastating\u2014paid family leave problem. According to the\nOrganization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranks last<\/em><\/a> in government-mandated paid leave\nfor new parents. Among forty-one nations, the U.S. fails to mandate paid leave\nfor new parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individual states have failed to pick up the slack. Currently, California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Washington, and Washington, D.C.<\/a><\/em> are the only states which provide paid family leave to eligible workers. Washington<\/em><\/a> and Washington D.C.<\/em><\/a>\u2019s programs began just last year. Two more states<\/em><\/a>\u2014Connecticut, and Oregon\u2014have programs slated to begin in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Colorado voted this past November on Proposition 118<\/em><\/a> to determine whether the state would implement its own paid family and medical leave program. Even though Colorado\u2019s Proposition 118 passed<\/a>, only nine states (plus the District of Columbia) have made meaningful steps toward a paid family leave mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need for government-mandated leave becomes evident with a quick look at private sector leave statistics. In 2019, 18% of private sector<\/a><\/em> employees had access to paid family leave through their employer and 42% of private sector<\/a><\/em> employees had access to fully or partly funded short-term disability insurance (\u201cSDI\u201d). Benefits were not evenly available across industries and professions: 46% of the information industry<\/em><\/a> offered paid family leave, compared to just 5% of the manufacturing industry.<\/a><\/em> While 30% of management<\/em><\/a>, professional, and related occupations had access to paid family leave, only 9% of production<\/em><\/a>, transportation, and material moving occupations had such a privilege. By wage, 30% of the top 25% of earners<\/a><\/em> had access to leave, compared to only 8% of the bottom 25%.<\/a><\/em> The Family Medical Leave Act (\u201cFMLA<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/em>) picks up some employees of covered private sector employers, public agencies, schools, and the federal government<\/a><\/em>,<\/a> but FMLA provides only unpaid job-protected leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond\u2014and\ncompounded by\u2014its paid family leave problem, the United States has a maternal\nand infant health and mortality problem. The U.S. ranks thirty-third out of thirty-six<\/em><\/a> <\/em>member countries of the Organization for Economic\nCooperation and Development (\u201cOECD\u201d) on infant mortality. Between 1990 and\n2013, while other nations saw an average 3.1% annual decline<\/em><\/a> in maternal mortality, the United\nStates saw an annual increase of 1.7%. Furthermore, racial inequalities in\nthese statistics cannot be overstated: Black women are twice as likely<\/em><\/a> as non-Hispanic white women to\nexperience life-threatening pregnancy-related complications. Racial disparities\nin pregnancy-related deaths among Black and non-Hispanic white women are\nsignificant even after controlling for income<\/em><\/a> and receipt of prenatal care; poverty\nalone does not and cannot explain the stark contrast in figures. Black mothers\nare also twice as likely to suffer the loss of an infant<\/em><\/a> before the child\u2019s first birthday.\nAmerican Indian and Alaska Native mothers in urban areas are 4.5 times<\/em><\/a> more likely to die from pregnancy\nand childbirth than non-Hispanic white mothers, and infant mortality is higher\namong certain Hispanic American communities<\/em><\/a> than among non-Hispanic white\nwomen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compounding the problem further, women of color are less likely to have access to any form of paid leave<\/em><\/a>. Black women with family caregiving responsibilities are estimated to spend 34%<\/a> of their annual income on caregiving expenses, compared to the 14%<\/em><\/a> spent by white male and female caregivers. But access to leave is an especially vital issue for women of color, in part because women of color are much more likely to be the primary or sole breadwinners<\/em><\/a> for their families\u201481% of Black mothers, 67% of Native mothers, and 52% of Latina mothers face such a reality, compared to 50% of white non-Hispanic mothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The perinatal and postpartum periods also have significant consequences for maternal mental health. Depression and anxiety affect one in seven women<\/em><\/a> during pregnancy, and are associated with increased risk of preterm delivery, reduced mother-infant bonding, and cognitive and emotional developmental delays in the infant. Clinical postpartum depression occurs in 10% to 20% of new mothers<\/em><\/a>, but Black women may be more than twice as likely<\/em><\/a> to experience postpartum depressive symptoms as white women. The advent of a global pandemic has only underscored the issue, as a recent rapid response survey identified a substantial increase<\/em><\/a> in the likelihood of maternal depression and anxiety during the pandemic. As COVID-19 is anticipated to decrease access<\/em><\/a> to diagnosis and treatment among mothers, we have reached a critical moment for maternal health in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies\nshow manifold and well-documented positive outcomes from states implementing\npaid family leave programs. California\u2019s paid leave program, the first in the\nnation, demonstrates just part of the policy\u2019s powerful potential. Before\nimplementation, Black women in California took one\nweek<\/a> of maternity leave on average, while white non-Hispanic women took\nfour weeks. After implementation, Black and white non-Hispanic women both took\nan average\nof seven weeks<\/a><\/em> of paid family leave. The program had a demonstrable\nimpact on parity in the duration of leave taken by white women and women of\ncolor, as well as in initiation of breastfeeding and\nother positive health outcomes<\/em><\/a>.\nEven the simple (and likely inadequate) act of introducing paid maternity leave\nthrough the SDI system led to a reduction in low birthweight and\npreterm births<\/em><\/a>,\nespecially for unmarried and Black mothers, in five states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave\nprograms have a meaningful impact on maternal mental health. Maternity leaves\nof twelve weeks or less<\/em><\/a> may contribute to increased risk\nof postpartum depression symptoms. Among women taking leaves of twelve weeks or\nless, every additional week<\/em><\/a> of leave is associated with a\nreduced chance of experiencing postpartum depressive symptoms. In the first\nyear postpartum, women who return to work sooner than six months<\/em><\/a> after childbirth are at an\nincreased risk of experiencing postpartum depressive symptoms. Notably, FMLA and\nmost other paid leave programs offer only twelve weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paid\nfamily leave also has a significant, measurable impact on mothers\u2019\nparticipation in the labor force. In California and New Jersey, for example, 26% to 29%<\/em><\/a> of participating women leave the\nlabor force in the first year that they have a child\u2014a phenomenon called \u201cmaternal\nlabor market detachment<\/em><\/a>.\u201d After implementation of a state family leave\npolicy, however, labor force participation among mothers increases by six\npercentage points, which reduces maternal labor market detachment in the first\nyear by 20%<\/em><\/a>. The results persist, with up to a\n50%<\/em><\/a> reduction after five years. As the\npandemic produces unprecedented caregiving demands, falling disproportionately\ninto the laps of mothers everywhere, child care lags behind<\/em><\/a> the rest of the nation\u2019s efforts\nto restart the economy. Now more than ever, keeping mothers in the labor market\nis critical to avoid forcing a generation of mothers out\nof the workforce<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As parents\nare edged out of their careers to care for children home from school or\ndaycare, we need to think about how we value their time, their health, and\ntheir lives. We also need to think about how our choices are affecting children.\nThe results are in, and we can do better. We need to support parents,\nespecially mothers, especially mothers fighting racial inequalities, especially\nright now<\/em>, if we want to see them keep their foothold in the workforce. We\nrisk a backslide if we don\u2019t\u2014one we can\u2019t afford when we\u2019re already so far\nbehind the rest of the world on so many fronts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About the Author: Nola Booth is currently a 2L at Cornell Law School. She grew up in Ithaca, NY and has a degree in Biology and Society from Cornell University. She worked as a judicial intern for the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York during her 1L summer, and she spends her free time with her partner, her daughter, and her toddler. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Suggested Citation: Nola Booth, Privilege, Progress, and Paid Family Leave<\/em>, Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol\u2019y: The Issue Spotter, (Jan. 29, 2021), https:\/\/live-journal-of-law-and-public-policy.pantheonsite.io\/privilege-progress-and-paid-family-leave\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source) The United States has an embarrassing\u2014and for many families, financially, physically, and emotionally devastating\u2014paid family leave problem. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranks last in government-mandated paid leave for new parents. Among forty-one nations, the U.S. fails to mandate paid leave for new parents. Individual states have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,16,17,18,19,21,25,27,28],"tags":[616,667,710,879,1147,1274],"class_list":["post-3446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-authors","category-blog-news","category-certified-review","category-feature","category-feature-img","category-spotters","category-policycontributor-blogs","category-recent-stories","category-student-blogs","tag-family-law","tag-fmla","tag-gender","tag-jlpp","tag-paid-family-leave","tag-race"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}