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When California became the first state in the country to create a paid family leave program in 2004, it was groundbreaking, but it offered somewhat bare-bones benefits.

State residents were guaranteed of leave to care for a newborn, a sick relative or to recover from their own illness or disability, and the pay they received was only 55% of their income, even for low-wage workers. It didn鈥檛 come with the assurance that they would be able to return to their jobs after leave. Many workers who were eligible didn鈥檛 make use of it; in of California employers and workers, one-third of workers said they didn鈥檛 apply for paid leave because the benefits were too low and taking it could adversely impact their jobs.

Today, a total of have enacted paid family leave programs, and over time they鈥檝e become more robust. Newer programs have guaranteed additional weeks off and job protection while offering higher wage replacement. Some have created more expansive definitions of family. Meanwhile, older programs like California鈥檚 have been expanded to become more generous. 

These changes have allowed more workers to actually take advantage of the benefits they鈥檝e paid into and are owed, according to new data, leading to more equality in who takes leave.

In a published by the National Partnership for Women & Families, Jessica Mason, senior policy analyst for economic justice at the organization, examined programs in Connecticut and Washington State, which were in 2019 and 2017, respectively, and offer 12 weeks of leave with nearly full wage replacement for the lowest-wage workers. They also allow people to take leave for chosen family members as well as more traditional ones. 

Those programs belong to the group that have a 鈥渘ewer, 2.0 model,鈥� she said. She also looked at Rhode Island, which became the third state in the country to enact paid family leave in 2008. The state started by offering four weeks of leave and is now up to six weeks at a flat 60% wage replacement rate, and with a stricter definition of family. That program is 鈥渢he original 1.0 model of paid leave,鈥� Mason said.

What she found is that, in the two states with more expansive benefits, 鈥渢here are some real equity benefits,鈥� she said. 

In the first three states to enact paid family leave 鈥� California, New Jersey and Rhode Island 鈥� the share of parental leave claims filed by men was very low in the first year, ranging from 12% in New Jersey to 32% in Rhode Island. But the states that have more recent policies have seen a very different trend. In Washington, roughly half of parental leave claims were filed by men, and in Connecticut it鈥檚 a bit over 45%. That means these programs are 鈥渟tarting off in a more equitable place,鈥� Mason said. 

Thanks to sliding scales for wage replacement, which offer lower-paid workers much more of their typical pay while on leave, women have a smaller gap in how much money they receive while on paid leave compared to men in both Washington and Connecticut. So while women still make less than men in these states, they鈥檙e getting more equal benefits, which 鈥渉elps mitigate the wage gap,鈥� Mason said.

There is also some evidence that higher wage replacement rates in these states are helping lower-paid workers. While workers earning in the very lowest quintile are still underrepresented among people taking medical leave for their own health issues 鈥� the most common reason for leave 鈥� low- and middle-income workers in Washington, for example, take leaves at higher rates than their share of the labor force. The higher rates could also be due to job protection for taking leave and a lot of outreach efforts to make sure residents know about the newer programs, Mason said. 

Change hasn鈥檛 just come to new states creating new programs. The original states that enacted more stringent programs have updated and expanded them, and they鈥檝e also seen promising results. At the start of this year, California increased its wage replacement such that the lowest-paid workers now get of their pay. It, too, is now seeing more equitable outcomes. More state residents overall are taking leave, and the rate surged 17% for people who earn $60,000 or less who can expect 90% of their wages. The gap between how much leave men and women take, meanwhile, has narrowed. 

The overall trend among states establishing leave is to expand and make programs more generous over time. 鈥淲e have not seen a single program go back and cut benefits,鈥� Mason noted. Meanwhile, other states have been able to learn from the lessons and mistakes of the earlier pioneers, and when new programs are developed, they tend to offer longer periods of leave, higher pay, more inclusive definitions of family and job protection, she said. These data show that these efforts can create real change in who is able to take leave.

It’s a matter of 鈥渇airness鈥� to enact these expansions that allow more people to take leave, Mason said. All of these programs are set up as social insurance, with workers and employers paying into them. They should, then, be able to make use of the benefits when they need them.

It鈥檚 a lesson that policymakers in Congress could stand to learn, Mason said. While Democrats鈥� version of paid family leave legislation, the FAMILY Act, has been to have a higher wage replacement rate for lower-wage workers and a more expansive definition of family, the House bipartisan Paid Family Leave Working Group a policy framework last year that seemed like they were trying to 鈥渞einvent the wheel,鈥� Mason said, and start from scratch.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to come up with a new policy here,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e already know what works.鈥�

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