Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in Dual-Earner Households Final Report
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About the Report
The report provides quasi-experimental evidence on the impact of paid leave legislation on fathers’ leavetaking, as well as on the division of leave between mothers and fathers in dual-earner households. Using difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference designs, researchers study California’s Paid Family Leave (CA-PFL) program, which is the first source of government-provided paid parental leave available to fathers in the United States. Results show that fathers in California are 0.9 percentage points—or 46 percent relative to the pre-treatment mean—more likely to take leave in the first year of their children’s lives when CA-PFL is available. Researchers also examine how parents allocate leave in households where both parents work and find that CA-PFL increases father-only leave-taking (i.e., father on leave while mother is at work) by 50 percent and joint leave-taking (i.e., both parents on leave at the same time) by 28 percent. These effects are much larger for fathers of sons than for fathers of daughters, and almost entirely driven by fathers of first-born children and fathers in occupations with a high share of female workers.
Research Gaps
- Our results suggest that a gender-neutral paid family leave (PFL) policy can increase the amount of time fathers of newborns spend at home—including time they spend at home while the mothers work—and therefore be seen as one way to promote gender equality. Future research may explore the impacts of CA-PFL on the gender wage gap as well as time use patterns in the home. (pages 21-22)
Citation
Bartel, A., Rossin-Slater, M., Ruhm, C., Stearns, J., Waldfogel, J. (2015). Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in Dual-Earner Households. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.