New Research: Working People Need Access to Paid Leave

In the new report, "Working People Need Access to Paid Leave," Emily Andrews, Sapna Mehta, and Jessica Milli use data from the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation Model to illustrate how the lack of paid family and medical leave in 37 states causes workers, particularly women of color, to lose billions of dollars in wages annually and experience increased economic insecurity.

The analysis finds that in the 37 states lacking comprehensive paid leave:

• Nearly 16.5 million leaves are taken each year, with 5.2 million, or 32 percent, taken without pay, resulting in billions of dollars in lost wages and increased economic insecurity and hardship.
• The lack of paid medical and family leave disproportionately hurts women of color, with higher rates of leaves not taken by Black, Hispanic, and Native American women compared with white women. Black and multiracial women have the highest rates of taking leave without pay.
• Over 8 million leaves are needed but not taken each year, including leave to care for a new child or a sick loved one, or to recover from a serious medical condition.
• Over 54 percent of the leaves needed each year are either not taken or taken without pay, forcing workers to choose between a paycheck and their own health or the health of their families. Workers and their families in these states lose an estimated $34 billion in wages annually due to unpaid or partially paid leave.
• Women are more likely than men to take leave that is either unpaid or only partially paid, causing women to lose nearly $19 billion each year—$3.2 billion more than men lose on an annual basis, even though men make up a larger percentage of the labor force and there is a sizeable and persistent gender pay gap.

Without Paid Family and Medical Leave, Workers Go Without or Lose Pay on More than Half of Needed Leaves

The report concludes with an urgent message to Congress: Pass a comprehensive paid family and medical leave plan that guarantees all U.S. workers at least 12 weeks of job-protected paid family and medical leave.

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