Paid Family Leave

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Paid Family Leave

Paid family leave policies require employers to allow eligible parents to take time off from work to bond with a new child while receiving a portion of their salary. By providing parents with the time and financial security to stay home with a new child, paid family leave can improve both economic security and the health and wellbeing of children and parents.

Featured Resources

2024 Roadmap Profile: Paid Family and Medical Leave

Paid family and medical leave programs providing a minimum of 6 weeks of leave for all parents with a new child increase access to paid time off from work, reduce racial disparities in leave-taking, boost mothers’ labor force participation, improve maternal mental health, and foster better child-parent relationships and child health.

Webinar Recording: Building the Business Case for Paid Family Leave

Paid family leave is one of the most impactful, yet cost-effective, policies a state can adopt to support infants, toddlers, and their families. Despite the strength of these impacts, it can be challenging to garner support from businesses.

Evidence Review: Paid Family Leave

Studies that examine the causal impact of paid family leave policies find that providing at least 6 weeks of paid leave to parents with a new child increases the length and likelihood of leave-taking, increases mothers’ labor force participation rates, improves mothers’ mental health, and fosters better child-parent relationships and child health.

Related Resources

Funding Mechanisms for State Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs

Learn how statewide paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs are financed through payroll contributions from workers and employers. This policy brief explores key decisions for funding PFML programs, including start-up funding, premium contributions, rate determination, and wage coverage.

State policy progress on paid family and medical leave in 2024

Paid family and medical leave (PFML) is one of 12 evidence-based policies in our 2024 Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap, which details states’ progress toward adopting and implementing policies that effectively improve child and family wellbeing.

State Policies to Reduce Disparities in Childhood Poverty: A Summary of the Evidence

Financial hardship in early childhood can disrupt healthy brain development and compromise the foundation for long-term development and wellbeing. Because of discrimination in employment and education as well as unequal opportunities to build wealth, Black,

How One Funder Invests in Policy & Systems Change for Family Mental Health

This is a guest post by Kim Gilsdorf, a Program Officer for the Perigee Fund, a national philanthropy committed to prenatal-to-age-3 mental health. I work with organizations that support the mental health of families every

2024 Prenatal-to-3 Legislative Highlights

With most legislatures adjourned for the year, we recap the 2024 action on state policies to support children and families. So far this year, lawmakers throughout the country debated—and many passed—legislation that aligns with four key components of the prenatal-to-3 system of care.

June Update: Prenatal-to-3 State Legislative Trends

Though most legislative sessions have adjourned, lawmakers and advocates across the country continue to advance efforts to support children and families. A lot can happen at the tail end of a legislative session, as Colorado