Paid family leave statistics: what parents miss, and why

2 in 5

Only two of every five eligible parents used any state paid parental leave

Across New York, New Jersey, and California, the three states with the longest-running programs, just 40% of eligible parents used any state paid parental leave in 2022. The research analyzed US Census and state claims data alongside a survey of more than 2,000 new parents.

Source: Moms First and McKinsey & Company, Solving the Paradox of Paid Leave · 2022 claims data, published 2025

$6,000 to $10,000

What each parent who claimed nothing left behind

The same research valued the unclaimed benefit at $6,000 to $10,000 per parent who used no leave. For context, the researchers note this is more than double the value of the 2021 expanded child tax credit.

Source: Moms First and McKinsey & Company · 2022 claims data, published 2025

57%

Higher claim rates at employers who pay above market

Using California administrative records, researchers found that a one standard deviation increase in a firm's earnings premium was associated with a 57% higher claim rate for state disability and paid family leave. Two workers with identical legal entitlements claim at very different rates depending on where they work.

Source: Bana, Bedard, Rossin-Slater and Stearns, Journal of Econometrics · California data, published 2022

Under half

Lower-income workers claim at less than half the rate of higher earners

Parents earning under $40,000 a year were less than half as likely to use state paid leave as those earning more than $100,000. Lower-wage workers are also less likely to qualify in the first place, because of earnings and hours requirements.

Source: Moms First and McKinsey & Company · 2022 claims data, published 2025

60%

Of eligible parents who did not claim, most did not know they could

Nearly 60% of surveyed parents who were eligible for state paid parental leave but did not use it said they were unaware it was available to them.

Source: Moms First and McKinsey & Company · Survey of 2,000+ new parents, 2025

70%

Parents rely primarily on their employer to learn about state benefits

More than 70% of surveyed parents said their employer was their primary source of information about state paid family leave, even though these are government programs administered by state agencies rather than employers. Where the employer does not explain the benefit, most parents never learn about it.

Source: Moms First · 2025

2 in 3

Feared job loss or career damage if they took leave

Over two-thirds of eligible parents who did not take leave cited fear of job loss or career setbacks. Nearly 60% said the complexity of applying influenced their decision. Both concerns were highest among lower-wage earners.

Source: Moms First and McKinsey & Company · 2025

27%

Of civilian workers had access to paid family leave through their employer

The federal Employee Benefits Survey measures employer-provided paid family leave. This figure is separate from state program eligibility, which is determined by earnings history rather than by an employer's choice to offer a benefit.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Benefits Survey · March 2024

25 points

Men are more likely to be eligible, and equally less likely to use it

Men were about 25 percentage points more likely than women to be eligible for state paid parental leave, and about 25 percentage points less likely to use it. As a result, men account for the majority of all unused parental leave weeks. The most common reason men gave was believing they did not need to take leave if their partner was taking it.

Source: Moms First and McKinsey & Company · 2022 claims data, published 2025

46%

More likely to take leave when a state program exists

After California introduced paid family leave, fathers became 46% more likely to take leave in their child's first year. Leave taken by the father alone, while the mother worked, rose 50%. Leave taken by both parents at the same time rose 28%.

Source: Bartel, Rossin-Slater, Ruhm, Stearns and Waldfogel, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management · California data, published 2018

31% → 46%

Fathers are a rising share of bonding claims in every state that reports it

State agencies that publish claims by gender all show the same trend: fathers are a growing share of newborn bonding claims, and in the newest data they approach parity. This is administrative claim data, not a survey.

Sources: California EDD Paid Family Leave Program Statistics, New York DFS Paid Family Leave Report, Rhode Island DLT TDI Annual Update. State fiscal years differ; each figure is dated. Percentages count approved claims.

6.7 vs 9.4

New York fathers take 6.7 weeks of bonding leave; mothers take 9.4, on the same 12-week entitlement

New York gives both parents the identical 12-week bonding benefit at the same wage replacement rate, so the gap is behavioral rather than a difference in entitlement. Across roughly 900,000 gendered claims, fathers average 6.7 weeks and mothers 9.4. It is the cleanest measure of the paternity gap available, because the two groups are entitled to exactly the same thing.

Source: New York DFS Paid Family Leave Report 2018 to 2025 · 2018 to 2025 cumulative

30.9%

Nearly a third of Massachusetts parents who took childbirth recovery leave never claimed the bonding leave they had earned

In the state's 2025 fiscal year, only 69.1% of people who took approved medical leave to recover from childbirth also took an approved bonding leave, down from 74.1% the year before. The rest left the second half of their leave on the table. Some may have used an employer plan the state does not count, and bonding can be taken up to a year after birth, so treat this as a ceiling. The trend still moved the wrong way while total program use rose 13%.

Source: Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave, FY2025 Annual Report · FY2025

15.6 vs 9.9

Washington parents who took medical pregnancy leave followed by bonding averaged 15.6 weeks, against 9.9 weeks for the average customer

Washington reports that customers taking leave around the arrival of a new child, medical pregnancy leave followed by bonding, averaged 15.6 weeks over a 12-month period. The overall average across all customers in the same measure was 9.9 weeks. Coordinating the two claims was worth roughly six additional weeks at home. Separately, and on a different basis, family bonding claims averaged 8.1 weeks per claim against a 7.2-week average across all claim types.

Source: Washington Employment Security Department, Paid Family & Medical Leave Report, December 2025, pp. 44-45 (Figures 31 and 32) · Dec 2025

Bigger than bonding

In every state that publishes a leave-type split, the medical and disability side is larger than the bonding side

For a birthing parent the medical leg is childbirth recovery, and it is the claim people most often forget, because they think of leave as bonding time rather than as a medical claim. In California, disability insurance paid roughly five times what paid family leave paid, and pregnancy alone was about a quarter of all disability claims. New Jersey reports pregnancy as its single largest category of disability claims, and has since 2001. (Oregon publishes a split we are still confirming, so we say eight states, not all.)

Source: Cross-state analysis of California EDD, New Jersey DOL, Massachusetts DFML and Washington ESD program reports · 2024 to 2026, varies by state