By Jessica Mason

The United States is 20 years into a quiet revolution in work-family policy. Since 2004, and particularly in the past decade, workers’ access to paid family and medical leave has grown tremendously thanks to innovative state policies that guarantee broad and inclusive coverage. These programs, enacted in 14 states and counting,Including the District of Columbia. National Partnership for Women & Families. (2024, July). State Paid Family & Medical Leave Insurance Laws. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from: https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/state-paid-family-leave-laws.pdf are demonstrating how government can work for working people, giving them more power in their daily lives. Workers’ ability to care for their health and loved ones in these states without putting their job or paycheck at risk is no longer just a rare perk for high-paid employees at high-end employers. It is becoming a basic right for workers across the board.

Last summer marked the twentieth anniversary of California’s first-in-the-nation paid family leave program, which guarantees people’s pay during time away from their jobs to welcome a new child or care for a family member with a serious health condition.State of California Empoyment Development Department. (2024, July 1). California Celebrates 20 Years of Paid Family Leave with Families and Community Partners [Press release]. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from: https://edd.ca.gov/en/about_edd/news_releases_and_announcements/california-celebrates-20-years-of-paid-family-leave-with-families-and-community-partners/ This program complemented California’s decades-old temporary disability insurance (TDI) system, which provides wage replacement during leaves for workers’ own health conditions. California paid family leave was followed by similar programs in New Jersey (2009), Rhode Island (2014) and New York (2018) – each building on existing TDI – then by 10 more states enacting comprehensive paid family and medical leave without pre-existing TDI since 2017.Dates benefits were first available. Programs in the District of Columbia (2020), Washington state (2020), Massachusetts (2021), Connecticut (2022), Oregon (2023) and Colorado (2024) are fully implemented as of the publication of this report, with Maryland (2026-2027), Delaware (2026), Minnesota (2026) and Maine (2026) in the process of implementation. See National Partnership for Women & Families. (2024, July). State Paid Family & Medical Leave Insurance Laws. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from: https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/state-paid-family-leave-laws.pdf

Careful evaluation of the first several states’ paid leave policies has found that these programs are successful in multiple ways. When more workers are able to take paid leave to manage their health and family needs, there are clear and documented benefits to maternal, infant and child health; to families’ food security and income stability; to the labor force attachment of new mothers and family caregivers; to employee productivity and turnover, and more.National Partnership for Women & Families. (2023, November). Paid Leave Works: Evidence from State Programs. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from: https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economic-justice/paid-leave/paid-leave-works-evidence-from-state-programs.pdf Still, these early programs were not perfect. For example, evidence suggested that lower-wage workers and workers of color were underutilizing paid leave programs – that is, they were less likely to use the programs than middle- and higher-paid workers. Research and public input has helped identify areas for improvement in both design and implementation to help ensure that all working people who need time for serious health and family caregiving needs are able to use paid leave programs.See for example: Andrew Chang & Co, LLC. (2015, July 13). Paid Family Leave Market Research. Report prepared for the California Development Department. On file with the National Partnership for Women & Families; Applebaum, E. (2019, February 4). Passing Paid Leave Laws Are Just the Beginning: Lessons from the Field on Raising Awareness. Center for Economic and Policy Research Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://cepr.net/publications/passing-paid-leave-laws-are-just-the-beginning-lessons-from-the-field-on-raising-awareness/; Baldino, N., McCoy, C., Tran, K., Trice, M. (2025, February). Young Workers Speak Out: New Perspectives on the Need for Paid Leave. A Better Balance, CLASP and National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.abetterbalance.org/young-workers-speak-out/; Logue-Conroy, R., Lancaster, D., & Daux, L. (2021, October). Implementation of Paid Family Leave in New Jersey: A Promising Work in Progress. Rutgers Center for Women and Work Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Implementation_PaidFamilyLeave_Oct2021.pdf; Mason, J. (2019, July). Meeting the Promise of Paid Leave: Best Practices in State Paid Leave Implementation. National Partnership for Women & Families, Main Street Alliance, and National Center for Children in Poverty Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/report/meeting-the-promise-of-paid-leave/; Milkman, R., & Applebaum, E. (2013). Unfinished Business: Paid Family Leave in California and the Future of U.S. Work-Family Policy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; Setty, S., Skinner, C., Wilson-Simmons, R. (2016, March).; Protecting Workers, Nurturing Families: Building an Inclusive Family Leave Insurance Program: Findings and Recommendations from the New Jersey Parenting Project. National Center for Children in Poverty at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.nccp.org/publication/protecting-workers-nurturing-families/; Zucker, G. (2021, March). Implementing Paid Family and Medical Leave: Lessons for State Administrators from Research in New Jersey. Better Life Lab New Practice Lab at New America Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/reports/implementing-paid-family-and-medical-leave/

Based on lessons learned, paid leave program design has evolved since 2004 in order to ensure that the benefits of paid leave are reaching all workers. Innovations include providing benefits on a sliding scale to ensure low-paid workers can afford to take time off; more inclusive definitions of family that better reflect people’s real lives; broader eligibility for protections against job loss and employer retaliation; and additional coverage for important purposes like military caregiving and supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of gender-based violence.See Futures Without Violence and National Partnership for Women & Families. (2023, May). Americans Need Access to Paid Safe Leave. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from: https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/survivors-of-domestic-and-sexual-violence-need-paid-safe-days.pdf States are also improving data collection to better evaluate program performance and equity, including, in some states, data on the self-reported race and ethnicity and gender identity of applicants. And states continue to test differing approaches to eligibility rules, maximum benefit caps and other features.States have also tested less effective and less worker-friendly models, including opt-in private insurance models that typically lack the broad coverage, equity, transparency and affordability priorities of social insurance programs like those discussed in this report. See for example Smith, K. (2024, February). New Hampshire Employees Working in Small Firms Lack Access to Paid Family and Medical Leave. University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://carsey.unh.edu/publication/new-hampshire-employees-working-small-firms-lack-access-paid-family-medical-leave; Cuno-Booth, P. (2023, December). “Almost a year in, NH paid family and medical leave doesn’t have many participants.” NH Business Review. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.nhbr.com/almost-a-year-in-nh-paid-family-and-medical-leave-doesnt-have-many-participants/

This report dives into previously unpublished claims data from three states to explore paid leave program use through an equity lens.Unless otherwise specified, all claims data described in this report are based on the authors’ analysis. See Methodology for more information. Looking at data from one older state program (Rhode Island) and two newer programs featuring sliding scale wage replacement, inclusive family definitions and other improvements (Washington state and Connecticut), the report examines trends in use of paid leave for each type of claim – medical, family caregiving, and parental – by gender, wage level, and (in Washington) race and ethnicity, as well as intersections of these categories where possible.

Why Is Equitable Paid Leave Important, and How Can We Identify It?

At the National Partnership, we care about whether there are measurable differences in access or outcomes between different communities, such as gaps in access to paid leave between white, Black and Hispanic workers. That’s because gaps can be evidence of differences in treatment or opportunity between groups (for example, resulting from structural barriers in policies or discriminatory treatment). In other words, gaps can show us where inequities are.

But an equitable policy is one that does more than simply eliminate gaps – it also ensures everyone has what they need to thrive. For paid leave, reducing inequities and making sure programs truly meet people’s needs allows all of us, no matter what we look like, where we come from or what kind of job we have, to have the freedom to care for our health and our families.

To check how equitable a paid leave policy is, then, we need to ask both whether there are inequities in which groups of people are able to use it and what their experiences are, and whether it’s fully meeting the needs of all people. Identifying whether a program is reaching that goal is challenging, though. No database or survey collects data on every family and health need that every person has every year (and that level of health data tracking would pose serious safety and privacy risks). But we can compare paid leave use to what we know about certain common health and caregiving needs, such as having a new child, to get a sense of how paid leave program use compares to how many people experience those needs.

Table 1.1 Key Features of Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs National Partnership for Women & Families. (2024, July). State Paid Family & Medical Leave Insurance Laws. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from: https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/state-paid-family-leave-laws.pdf

Program Use at a Glance

As a baseline for comparison, research on the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has found that about 15 percent of all employees have taken family or medical leave in the previous 12 months. Half of these were for the employee’s own serious health condition other than birth or pregnancy; one-quarter were for pregnancy, childbirth recovery, or a new child; and the remainder were for family caregiving.Includes leaves for some non-FMLA-covered family care recipients. Brown, S., Herr, J., Roy, R., & Klerman, J. A. (2020, July). Employee and Worksite Perspectives of the Family and Medical Leave Act: Supplemental Results from the 2018 Surveys (Appendix Exhibit B4-2). Abt Associates Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from U.S. Department of Labor website: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OASP/evaluation/pdf/WHD_FMLA2018SurveyResults_Appendices_Aug2020.pdf In line with FMLA use, medical leave“Temporary disability” in Rhode Island’s program. is the most commonly used segment of each state’s program, followed by parental and family leave.

Tables 1.2 through 1.4 looking at the number of claims filed and the number approved as a share of eligible workers as an approximate utilization rate. No state had a higher utilization rate than FMLA research would predict. Given that research on the FMLA has consistently found that a sizeable share of workers each year avoid taking leaves they need due to lack of pay, and state paid leave programs have large benefits for workers’ and families’ health and economic stability,National Partnership for Women & Families. (2023, November). Paid Leave Works: Evidence from State Programs. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/paid-leave-works-evidence-from-state-programs.pdf it might be expected that use of paid leave would meet, if not exceed, use of FMLA. These utilization rates are in line with other research finding that programs have a modest impact on the overall rates of leave-taking and do not significantly disrupt employers, and also underscore the need for continued efforts to ensure that people who experience serious health and caregiving needs can easily access paid leave without barriers.

Many factors impact program use:

• how widely workers know about the program and whether the available benefits meet workers’ needs
• how strict eligibility rules are
• how accessible the application forms and process are
• whether applicants are able to get help when they have questions or run into problems applying
• how onerous or expensive it is to get medical certifications
• whether people fear retaliation on the job for taking time off, and more

Of the three states, Rhode Island has the strictest eligibility rules (meaning that a larger share of the labor force is not eligible for the program), while Connecticut has the lowest benefit cap (which could discourage use by middle- and higher-paid workers) and is the only program that contracts with a private insurer, Aflac, to process claims and benefits. In initial program rollout, Aflac did not meet required performance standards, leading to delays and denial rates as high as 40 percent in early months.Lloyd, B., & Haddadin, J. (2023, February 13). “CT Paid Leave Authority to withhold $375,000 from claims company.” CT Mirror. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://ctmirror.org/2023/02/13/ct-paid-leave-authority-to-withhold-375000-from-claims-company-aflac/

Table 1.2 Medical Leave Utilization Rates by State

In Rhode Island, where paid medical leave has been available since 1942, the number of medical claims filed per year is equivalent to around 10 percent of eligible workers, and the number of approved claims to about 8 to 9 percent of eligible workers. Note that this is higher than other older programs, which range from less than 3 percent to just over 5 percent per year.Shabo, V. (2025, January 8). Explainer: Paid and Unpaid Leave Policies in the United States. New America Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/briefs/explainer-paid-and-unpaid-leave-policies-in-the-united-states Washington and Connecticut have lower overall utilization – filed claims represented 2 to 4 percent of eligible workers, and approved claims less than 3 percent. This is likely because workers and employers are not yet as accustomed to accessing these newer programs, compared to the decades of experience Rhode Islanders have, and Rhode Island may have other advantages such as effective outreach strategies for a small state population. Washington’s utilization increased steadily over the first three years of operation, and later years of Connecticut data may show a similar trend.Data for Connecticut is based on a single fiscal year, April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023, labeled as “2022” throughout this report. Data used in this report reflects claims data collected by the state agencies, meaning it does not include claims made by Washington or Connecticut employees whose employers offer coverage through private or self-insurance.

In 2022, the average medical leave in Rhode Island lasted 9.4 weeks with a weekly benefit of $628.57; in Washington, 7.1 weeks with a weekly benefit of $902.53; and in Connecticut, 6.9 weeks with a weekly benefit of $687.69.

Table 1.3 Family Leave Utilization Rates by State

There is much less of a gap between states in family caregiving leave utilization, although this type of leave appears to be underused compared to the likely need demonstrated by FMLA research. The three states do vary in terms of which family relationships are recognized; in 2022, Washington updated its family definition to include chosen family, and Connecticut has covered chosen family since it was initially implemented. (See below for more on family caregiving relationships.)

In 2022, the average family caregiving leave in Rhode Island lasted 3.9 weeks with a weekly benefit of $643.79; in Washington, 6.3 weeks with a weekly benefit of $916.80; and in Connecticut, 5.7 weeks with a weekly benefit of $569.94.

Table 1.4 Parental Leave Utilization Rates by State

For parental leave, the rate of claims filed in Connecticut was roughly similar to Rhode Island, but the rate for approved claims was slightly lower. Slightly more Washington workers made parental leave claims compared to both states, indicating that Washington may be having more success reaching new parents. The difference in Connecticut’s claims filed and claims approved – resulting in lower overall utilization – is reflected in the state’s slightly lower approval rate for parental leave claims compared to the other two states, with about 83 percent of claims approved compared to 87 to 92 percent in Washington and 87 to 91 percent in Rhode Island (see Appendix tables for approval rates).

In 2022, the average parental leave in Rhode Island lasted 4.1 weeks with a weekly benefit of $730; in Washington, 7.9 weeks with a weekly benefit of $966; and in Connecticut, 5.8 weeks with a weekly benefit of $719. See Parental Leave by Gender, Wage Level and State and New Parents Increasingly Benefit from State Paid Leave, But Room to Grow for Fathers for a deeper dive into parental leave use.

Safe Leave and Military Leave

Both Washington and Connecticut provide leave related to a loved one’s military deployment to address needs such as rearranging child care or elder care, making financial or legal arrangements, attending military events or spending time with a servicemember on Rest and Recuperation leave.Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. (n.d.) CT Paid Leave for Military Families. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.ctpaidleave.org/how-ct-paid-leave-works/qualifying-reasons/military-family; Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave. (2021, January). A new benefit for military families. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://paidleave.wa.gov/app/uploads/2021/01/2021.Exigency.Infographic.pdf In 2022, 30 claims for military leave were filed in Connecticut,The total number of claims per year is too small to allow for analysis by subgroup. and 157 in Washington.Washington Employment Security Department. (2022, December). Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave Annual Report. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://esd.wa.gov/media/pdf/74/paid-family-and-medical-leave-2022-annual-report-legislaturepdf/download?inline Table 2.A

Connecticut also provides safe leave for workers affected by family violence or sexual assault, which may be taken for needs such as medical care, obtaining services from a survivor services organization, participating in legal proceedings or relocating.Connecticut Paid Leave Authority. (n.d.) What is Safe Leave? Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.ctpaidleave.org/how-ct-paid-leave-works/qualifying-reasons/safe-leave?language=en_US In 2022, 133 claims for safe leave were filed, 35 of which were approved. The average duration of safe leave was 2.2 weeks – currently about the maximum allotment of 12 days – and the average weekly benefit amount was $509.

That most people taking paid safe leave are using up the short amount of time available suggests that making more time available is warranted, and could indicate that there is unmet need among these survivors. In addition, while it is difficult to identify a trend from a small sample over a short period of time, the low approval rate for safe leave claims in this data may need further investigation. For example, the most common reason for denial (53 of the denied claims) was “Requested documentation was not received.” Survivors may have difficulty seeking documentation not only due to the time and cost that can be involved, but also because it may pose risks to their health or safety.Safe Leave Working Group. (2025, April). Safe Leave Documentation & Confidentiality Rules. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from CLASP website: https://www.clasp.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/4.15Safe-Leave-Formatted-Documentation-and-Confidentiality-Rules-Final.pdf Review of claims processing procedures and research with survivors and their advocates could identify where barriers are arising, whether it is a mis-match between types of documentation survivors provide and guidelines for claims reviewers, survivors experiencing barriers acquiring documentation at all, or other hurdles.

The relatively small number of claims for these types of leave may indicate some need for more targeted outreach to ensure that those in need – military families and survivors of gender-based violence – are aware that paid leave is available. At the same time, policymakers can keep in mind that because these important needs impact a relatively small share of the overall population at any given time,As of 2023, there were 1.4 million family members of active-duty service members and about 970,000 family members of selected reserve members nationwide, and only a share of those would experience a qualifying condition in any year. U.S. Department of Defense. (2024, October). 2023 Demographics: Profile of the Military Community (p. 115 and p. 153). Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.militaryonesource.mil/data-research-and-statistics/military-community-demographics/2023-demographics-profile/ they can be easily supported through paid leave programs without making a large impact on program finances.

Newer Programs Help Close Gender Gap in Benefits

Paid leave programs are meant to provide time and income support to workers so that they can take care of their health and families, especially to help close the gaps for the vast majority of people in middle- and low-paying jobs without paid leave benefits. But if program design doesn’t center equity, that goal might not be met. For example, factors including pay discrimination, occupational segregation, and lack of support for caregiving responsibilities mean that women still tend to be paid less overall than men, and women of color and disabled women tend to face the widest wage gaps.National Partnership for Women & Families. (2025, March). America’s Women and the Wage Gap. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/americas-women-and-the-wage-gap.pdf; Ditkowsky, M,. Majumder, A., Ahmed, A., & Gallagher Robbins, K. (2024, October). Disabled Women and the Wage Gap. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from National Partnership for Women & Families website: https://nationalpartnership.org/report/disabled-women-wage-gap/ Because paid leave benefit levels are set based on a worker’s wage history, inequities in the broader labor market and economy – including wage gaps – could be carried forward into paid leave benefit gaps.

Older paid leave programs originally offered a flat wage replacement rate, meaning that all workers had the same percentage of their usual wages replaced, up to a maximum benefit, which made it particularly challenging for low-wage workers to take the leave they needed. California paid family leave initially provided just 55 percent wage replacement, New Jersey 66 percent, and New York 50 percent (increasing annually to 67 percent when fully implemented as of 2021); California and New Jersey have since strengthened their programs by raising the wage replacement rate for the lowest-paid workers to 70 percent and 85 percent, respectively, with a sliding scale as wages increase.

In Rhode Island, workers receive about 60 percent of their usual weekly pay, with a maximum weekly benefit cap (about $1,070 in 2025). For the lowest-wage workers, these rates could be too low to make taking leave affordable – and women, workers of color and disabled workers were disproportionately represented in this group. For example, analysis of paid leave programs across countries economically competitive with the U.S. indicates that at least 80 percent wage replacement is necessary for paid leave to effectively address poverty and to advance gender equity, and higher rates are even better.Raub, A., Nandi, A., Earle, A., de Guzman Chorny, N. et al. (2018). Paid Parental Leave: A Detailed Look at Approaches Across OECD Countries. WORLD Policy Analysis Center at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.worldpolicycenter.org/sites/default/files/WORLD%20Report%20-%20Parental%20Leave%20OECD%20Country%20Approaches_0.pdf

Newer programs, starting with those implemented in D.C. and Washington state in 2020, have adopted wage replacement rates on a sliding scale, in which workers receive a higher percentage of their wages at the lowest levels, while middle- and higher-wage workers still receive an adequate benefit level. For example, in Washington, workers making below the state’s average weekly wage receive 90 percent of their usual pay, and the percentage scales down for workers with higher wages. In Connecticut, workers with wages less than 40 times the minimum wage receive 95 percent of their usual pay, with that rate also scaling down as wages increase. However, Connecticut has a lower cap on weekly benefits than Washington or Rhode Island.California, New Jersey and New York have also revised their programs to include a progressive wage replacement rate.

Table 2.1: Weekly Benefit for Workers by State (2025)

Claims data show that the states with progressive wage replacement, Washington and Connecticut,Claims data provided by the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority did not include claimants’ wage history. For this analysis, claimants’ wages were estimated based on their weekly benefit amount, excluding claims with no reported benefit amount and intermittent/reduced schedule claims, and assigned to the first three earnings quintile. Earnings in the middle of the third quintile begin to reach the weekly benefit cap; these claimants were all assigned to the “High” wage level. have smaller gaps between average weekly benefits of men and women, compared to benefit gaps in Rhode Island. In other words, a flat wage replacement rate essentially carries forward pre-existing wage disparities into the weekly benefits received, and the gap in weekly benefits repeats the overall wage gap. But a sliding scale helps lift the benefits received by workers whose wages are lower, helping close that wage gap.

Table 2.2 Gender Gap in Average Weekly Benefit, by State

Rhode Island and Connecticut data did not include applicants’ race or ethnicity, and so benefit gaps could not be analyzed intersectionally. In Washington, comparing average weekly benefit amounts of women by race and ethnicity to those of white men, these data suggest larger gaps still remain for women in some racial and ethnic groups.At the time these data were collected, Rhode Island and Connecticut did not collect information from applicants about their race or ethnicity. Still, these gaps in benefit level are smaller than overall wage gaps in Washington for those groups, suggesting that the program’s design is mitigating, rather than exacerbating, structural wage inequities.

Table 2.3 Gender Gap in Average Weekly Parental Leave Benefit by Race/Ethnicity, WashingtonRace/ethnicity categories provided by Washington Employment Security Department.

Smaller benefit gaps could have a number of causes. On the positive side, it could be that progressive wage replacement rates are resulting in more equitable benefits, helping slightly make up for the lower pay that women and workers of color tend to receive on average. However, if a lower gap is driven by the inability of the lowest wage workers to claim benefits, inequities still remain. Examining use by workers at different wage levels will help test program equity further.Wage analysis for Connecticut is approximate. Claims data provided by the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority did not include applicants’ earnings history. Instead, reported weekly benefit amount was used to estimate claimants’ earnings, based on the program benefit formula; there was no way to estimate wages above the level required for the maximum weekly benefit. Benefit amount was not available for most denied claims and earnings could not be estimated for intermittent or reduced schedule claims.

Paid Leave Programs Benefit Workers at All Wage Levels, Particularly Among Women

Are some groups of workers less likely to take paid leave, with differences in program use that could indicate potential inequities? If there are differences, are they because those workers are less likely to be eligible for the program, less likely to apply, or less likely to be approved? Identifying where gaps arise can help pinpoint whether possible inequities need to be addressed by changes to program rules, or fixing other barriers that eligible workers might face, such as lack of awareness about the program, concerns about retaliation on the job, or challenges with getting the right paperwork and completing the application. The analyses in this section compare the overall demographics of each state’s labor force to the demographics of the population eligible for each state’s paid leave program, which helps show the impact of eligibility rules (compare the beige and blue bars in each chart). Those are compared to the breakdown of workers who file claims (pink bars) – which could be impacted by issues like program awareness and fears of job retaliation – and those who have claims approved, which could indicate trouble with paperwork or confusion about eligibility (red bars).Estimates of state labor force and eligible population are based on the National Partnership’s analysis of American Community Survey data for each state, and should be considered approximations. See methodology for additional details. Totals may not add up to 100 percent because not all individuals in the labor force have earnings, and wage analysis of claims excluded second- and higher-order claims by the same individual in a year. For complete estimates of each state’s labor force and eligible population, see the Appendix.

Medical Leave: Women and Lower- to Middle-Wage Workers Better Represented

As noted above, the most common reason that workers need leave is for their own serious health conditions, such as to undergo treatment for cancer, recover from being injured in a car crash or manage a chronic physical or mental health condition. People who don’t have access to paid medical leave when they need it are likely to delay or go without medical care, which can lead to worse health, and put them at risk of complications and even death.Williamson, M. W. (2024, May). Lack of Paid Leave Hurts Americans’ Health. Center for American Progress Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/lack-of-paid-leave-hurts-americans-health/ But implementing paid leave can lead to improved health for workers with chronic heart disease and with depression.Majumder, A., & Mason, J. (2025, February). The Impact of Paid Leave on the Health of Massachusetts. National Partnership for Women & Families Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/report/the-impact-of-paid-leave-on-the-health-of-massachusetts/

Medical leave is also commonly taken by workers to recover from childbirth and for needs related to pregnancy (including but not limited to severe complications). Pregnancy and birth have significant effects on the body, and even for those without complications, it takes months or longer for these changes to stabilize or recover.Biever, C. (2025, March). Pregnancy’s true toll on the body: huge birth study paints most detailed picture yet. Nature, 640(16-17). doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00959-7 Paid leave to address and recover from the physical challenges of pregnancy and birth, as well as adapt to parenting, is essential for the physical and mental health of new mothers.Heshmati, A., Honkaniemi, H., Chatterji, P., & Juárez, S. P. (2023, January). The effect of parental leave on parents’ mental health: a systematic review. The Lancet Public Health, 8(1), E57-E75. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00311-5; Jou, J., Kozhimannil, K. B., Abraham, J. M., Blewett, L. A., & McGovern, P. M. (2018, February). Paid Maternity Leave in the United States: Associations with Maternal and Infant Health. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 22(2), 216-2025. doi: 10.1007/s10995-017-2393-x; Markowitz, S. (2008, July). Family Leave After Childbirth and the Health of New Mothers. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from National Bureau of Economic Research website: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14156; Kornfeind, K. R., & Sipsma, H. L. (2018). Exploring the Link between Maternity Leave and Postpartum Depression. Women’s Health Issues, 28(4), 321-326. doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2018.03.008; Pal, I. (2016). Work, Family and Social Policy in the United States – Implications for Women’s Wages and Wellbeing. Doctoral thesis, Columbia University. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D87W6C74; Perry, M. F., Trasatti, E., Yee, L. M., & Feinglass, J. M. (2023). State paid family and medical leave and postpartum outcomes. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 228(1). doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2022.11.054

Note that access to medical leave varies across the three states: Rhode Island covers up to 30 weeks of medical leave, as well as a separate amount for family caregiving and/or parental leave (four weeks in 2020, increased to five in 2022, six in 2023, seven in 2025 and eight in 2026). In Washington, workers have up to 12 weeks of medical leave or 14 in the event of a serious pregnancy-related health condition, and can take a total of 16 combined weeks of leave (18 with a serious pregnancy-related health condition). Connecticut provides up to 12 weeks total across all purposes (14 in the event of a serious pregnancy-related health condition).

Overall, medical leave is used somewhat more by women than men – likely driven by pregnancy- and birth- related needs. (A future analysis will further examine medical leave claims by condition. Below, discussion of medical leave claims includes all types.) Workers with the very lowest wages are somewhat underrepresented in leave claims, particularly among men and particularly in Connecticut. But low- and middle-wage workers are well-represented, with women at these modest wage levels actually overrepresented in some cases.

Lowest-Paid Fifth of Workers Face Some Barriers

In each state, claims for medical leave – to address a worker’s own serious health issue – are the most common category of claim.Washington claims data for this period did not distinguish medical leave leaves for pregnancy complications or recovery from childbirth from other types of medical claims. To be comparable, analyses for Rhode Island and Connecticut medical leave claims also include pregnancy- and birth-related leaves. Across states, workers in the lowest-earning fifth of the workforce (lowest quintile) are somewhat underrepresented in medical leave claims – these are workers making less than about $20,000 per year.In 2022, for example, the lowest quintile included individuals with earnings up to $20,039 in Rhode Island, $14,419 in Washington and $17,818 in Washington. See Methodology for more information. (See methodology for full description of earnings quintiles/levels used in this report.) In all three states, our estimates suggest that the lowest-paid workers make up a somewhat lower share of workers who are eligible for the program compared to their overall share of the labor force, indicating program eligibility rules are likely a hurdle to accessing paid leave. The lowest-wage workers also make up a slightly lower share of workers who file for benefits in both states, and are somewhat less likely to have their claims approved than workers in higher earnings quintiles. Lower filing rates suggest more is needed to raise program awareness and/or reduce barriers to applying among low-wage workers, while lower approval rates indicate a need for further research to identify whether denials are due to eligibility barriers, challenges with paperwork or other reasons. But there is variation across states in these trends.

Chart 3.1 Medical Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

Chart 3.2 Medical Leave Claims, Connecticut (2022)Connecticut data did not allow for wage analysis of claims that were not approved, and so only approved claims are included.

Chart 3.3 Medical Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

Notably, for the lowest-wage workers, the drop-off between their share of the labor force (all people employed or seeking work) and their share of the eligible population is steepest in Rhode Island, followed by Connecticut and then Washington. This reflects the relatively high level of wages workers in Rhode Island must have to be eligible (in 2025, equivalent to earning at least $16,800 over a year, which leaves out 19 to 22 percent of the labor force).See National Partnership for Women & Families, Paid Family & Medical Leave Insurance Laws, https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/state-paid-family-leave-laws.pdf By comparison, workers in Connecticut face a lower wage minimum to be eligible (at least $2,325 in a quarter, plus a requirement to have been employed in the previous 12 weeks), excluding about 17 percent of the labor force. Washington instead focuses on hours worked, requiring the equivalent of 820 work hours over a year or about 15 hours per week, which excludes 6 to 7 percent of the labor force.

Nonetheless, the share of low-wage workers (relative to their share of the labor force) applying for and being approved for paid leave in Rhode Island is comparable to that in Washington. This suggests that, while a significant share of the lowest wage workers are not eligible for Rhode Island paid leave, the program is accessible to and being used by those who are eligible. In Washington, meanwhile, there is a more gradual decline in lowest-wage workers’ share from labor force, to eligible population, to filed claims to approved claims. In Connecticut, the lowest-wage workers make up a small share of approved claims. (Data limitations prevented analysis of denied claims by wage level in Connecticut.)

Workers with Low-to-Middle Wages Are Well-Represented

Workers in the next-highest quintile,In 2022, the second quintile included individuals with earnings between $20,040 – $38,964 in Rhode Island, $14,420 – $36,047 in Washington and $17,819 – $38,107 in Connecticut. however, make up a relatively fair share of those filing claims and receiving benefits in all three states. In Rhode Island, this group makes up about the same share of filers and approved applications as its share of eligible workers, while in Washington, these lower-wage workers actually make up a larger share of filed and approved claims than would be expected from their share of the eligible workforce – a pattern that continues for workers in the middle wage quintile. In Connecticut, too, workers in the second quintile are only slightly underrepresented as a share of approved claims, compared to their share of the eligible workforce, and workers in the bottom of the third quintile are actually overrepresented. (Data limitations prevent this analysis from fully disaggregating claims for Connecticut workers in the top three quintiles.)Claims data provided by the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority did not include claimants’ wage history. For this analysis, we estimated claimants’ wages based on their weekly benefit amount, excluding claims with no reported benefit amount (nearly all denied claims or a worker’s second or more claim in a year) and intermittent/reduced schedule claims, and assigned to the first three earnings quintile. Earnings in the middle of the third quintile begin to reach the weekly benefit cap; these claimants were all assigned to the “High” wage level.

These are groups earning modest wages: for example in Rhode Island, the second quintile is made up of people making less than $40,000 per year, and the third, less than $60,000 (levels vary by year). The data indicate that, while the very lowest-wage workers are experiencing some barriers, low- and middle-wage workers overall are able to use these programs to meet their medical needs.

But looking deeper into the data, possible inequities for low-wage workers vary by gender, with women’s usage generally more on par with their share of the labor force than men’s, and by leave type.

Women and Middle-Wage Men Make Up the Bulk of Medical Leave Claims

Women overall represent greater program usage than men. Men’s use of medical leave overall is close to proportionate to their share of the labor force and eligible workforce, although the very lowest-wage men are still significantly underrepresented, while all but the lowest-wage women are somewhat overrepresented in claims.

Chart 3.4 Women’s Medical Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

Chart 3.5 Men’s Medical Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

In Washington, workers with earnings in the second and third quintile are overrepresented in both filed claims and approved claims, and those in the fourth quintile make up about the same share of the labor force, the pool of eligible workers, filers and approved claims. This suggests that the program is reaching lower-middle to upper-middle wage workers fairly evenly, and is relatively accessible to this group.

Chart 3.6 Women’s Medical Leave Claims, Connecticut (2022)

Chart 3.7 Men’s Medical Leave Claims, Connecticut (2022)

These trends are similar in Connecticut, with women overall accessing medical leave more than men. For women, the lowest-wage women are underrepresented compared to their share of the labor force but close to proportional as a share of eligible workers, suggesting eligibility rules are a driver of lower access to leave. Use by men in the lowest and second-lowest quintiles is low compared to both their share of the labor force and of the eligible population, pointing to a need to identify whether this indicates unmet need, potentially due to barriers such as low program awareness, concerns about job loss or retaliation, or paperwork barriers like confusingly-designed application forms or difficulty getting medical providers to submit certifications on time. Additionally, preliminary evidence from a survey of Washington workers who used the state’s paid leave program to care for their own or a family member’s mental health identified feelings of stigma and shame – feelings that may prevent some workers from applying.Hill, H., Freitag, C., Rucavado, D., & Grady, R. (2024, November). Paid Leave As a Public Health Intervention: Impacts and Challenges – The Benefits and Challenges to Using Paid Leave for Mental and Behavioral Health Conditions: Evidence from Parents in Washington State. Paper presented at the 2024 Association for Public Policy and Management Fall Research Conference, National Harbor, Maryland. Abstract available at https://appam.confex.com/appam/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/52588 Research on working parents who have taken Washington paid leave for medical needs has found that they valued the time and had reduced stress about work and income;Hill, H., & Rucavado, D. (2023, December). Evans Research Brief: What Parents Say About Using Washington Paid Leave for Physical Health. University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://evans.uw.edu/evans-research-brief-what-parents-say-about-using-washington-paid-leave-for-physical-health/ it is important to ensure that these benefits of paid leave can be experienced by all workers who have those needs.

Chart 3.8 Women’s Medical Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

Chart 3.9 Men’s Medical Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

Finally, in Rhode Island, the lowest-wage women and men appear to be less underrepresented in medical leave claims, despite being significantly less likely to be eligible for the program than higher-paid workers. This could be an indication of success over time building a positive culture and widespread knowledge of the program over time (paid medical leave has been available in Rhode Island since 1942). Similar to the other states, workers in the middle quintiles, especially women, make up a fair-to-large share of claimants.

Men and women both experience a lower claim approval rate at the lowest earnings level, based on Washington and Rhode Island data. The number of claims by nonbinary applicants, available in Washington and Connecticut, was too small to analyze by wage level.

Table 3.10 Medical Leave Approval Rates by State

Family Caregiving Leave: Gender Gaps Smaller in Washington and Connecticut than Rhode Island

Family caregiving leave is taken to care for a family member with a serious health condition. Women overall tend to do more family caregiving than men, but research has found that men and women are about equally likely to say they will need to take time off to care for a family member in the future, suggesting that gender-based differences in actually taking leave are related more to structural or cultural barriers than differences in men’s and women’s need and desire to provide care.Lenhart, A., Swenson, H., & Schulte, B. (2019, December 4). Lifting the Barriers to Paid Family and Medical Leave for Men in the United States. New America Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/reports/lifting-barriers-paid-family-and-medical-leave-men-united-states/ And in fact, work-family policies that guarantee job-protected time off can help men engage more in family care.For example, paid sick leave laws lead to men taking more leave time for caregiving, with stronger effects among men without college degrees and Hispanic men. Byker, T., Patel, E., & Ramnath, S. (2023, April). Who Cares? Paid Sick Leave Mandates, Caregiving, and Gender. National Tax Journal, 76(3), doi:10.1086/725876 In the two newer state programs, Washington and Connecticut, there is a smaller gender gap in use of family caregiving leave than in medical leave, and it is smaller compared to Rhode Island.

Washington

While women still made the majority of claims for family leave, the gap between men and women was smaller than for medical leave, with women making about 61 to 64 percent of family leave claims compared to 69 to 71 percent of medical leave claims. This shows up largely for men in the second, third and fourth wage quintiles – in other words, men with lower to middle wages were about proportionately represented among family leave claimants, while men with the very lowest wages and highest wages were underrepresented. Meanwhile, women in the lowest wage quintile were only slightly underrepresented, and in the middle three quintiles were overrepresented. This gender gap in claims echoes broader social trends: men are performing a sizeable, and growing, share of family caregiving, particularly middle-income men,For more on men’s caregiving, see for example New America’s report series “Men and Care in the United States” (June 2020, https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/better-life-lab-collections/men-and-care-united-states/). but women still perform about two-thirds of it.Gallagher Robbins, K., & Mason, J. (2024, June 27). Americans’ Unpaid Caregiving is Worth More than $1 Trillion Annually – and Women are Doing Two-Thirds of The Work. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from National Partnership for Women & Families website: https://nationalpartnership.org/americans-unpaid-caregiving-worth-1-trillion-annually-women-two-thirds-work/

Chart 4.1 Women’s Family Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

Chart 4.2 Men’s Family Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

Connecticut

The overall gender gap in use of Connecticut family leave was similar to that in Washington, with women making just over 60 percent of claims. For both men and women, the lowest-wage workers were underrepresented among family leave claimants, as were men in the second quintile. Women were comparatively overrepresented in the second quintile and above, while men starting in the third quintile were more fairly represented. The lower use by the lowest wage men and women suggests an important direction for additional research to identify whether there is unmet need and if so, what barriers these workers face.

Chart 4.3 Women’s Family Leave Claims, Connecticut (2022)

Chart 4.4 Men’s Family Leave, Connecticut (2022)

Rhode Island

Comparing Rhode Islanders’ use of family leave to trends in medical leave highlights a large gender gap. Use of family leave overall (combining data for men and women) is relatively proportionate across the first four quintiles, even among the lowest-wage workers. But data by gender show that women are much more likely to make family leave claims than men (ranging from 69 percent of claims in 2022 to 76 percent in 2020).

It could be that the relatively low wage replacement rate for low-wage workers in Rhode Island, compared to the progressive rates in Washington or Connecticut, is a culprit. Family care must be done by somebody – but the decision about who is far from random. Existing gendered social norms mean that “somebody” tends to be a woman by default, and these norms are reinforced by gender wage gaps. Strictly in terms of dollars, there is on average a higher “opportunity cost” for men to take unpaid time off work than women due to higher wages. On top of that, men report feeling strong pressures to be breadwinners for their families.See for example Lenhart, A., Swenson, H., & Schulte, B. (2019, December 4). Lifting the Barriers to Paid Family and Medical Leave for Men in the United States. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from New America website: https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/reports/lifting-barriers-paid-family-and-medical-leave-men-united-states/what-americans-think-about-why-men-do-and-do-not-take-leave-from-work-to-care-for-loved-ones In order to push back against those intersecting forces, a paid leave benefit must be high enough for men to still fulfill those breadwinner norms, and men – and all workers – must be able to feel confident that they will not face negative repercussions at work for taking time to care.

The value of having a program in place for family caregivers, and how paid leave programs can flexibly respond to emergent needs, was underscored for Rhode Island in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state quickly adjusted the program to provide time for parents to care for children whose school or normal child care was closed due to the pandemic. Leaves to care for a child made up nearly two-thirds of family caregiving leaves. (See charts below for family caregiving claims by relationship.)

Chart 4.5 Women’s Family Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

Chart 4.6 Men’s Family Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

Most Family Leaves Are for a Parent, Spouse or Child, but Data Also Show Need to Recognize All Families

Across all states, family caregiving leave is most commonly taken for parents, children or spouses, with other types of relationships representing less than 5 percent of leaves. Each state includes a slightly different definition of “family member,” the individuals for whom a worker can potentially take family leave, with Washington and Connecticut covering a more complete set of extended family relationships than Rhode Island, such as grandparents, grandchildren and siblings. Washington and Connecticut both also recognize that workers may have deep, loving relationships with individuals that are as close as relationships in these specific categories, and may need to take care of someone such as a former spouse they are still close to or co-parenting with, an older neighbor without family nearby or a close friend from military service days or a faith community (called “chosen family”).Over the first year and a half after Washington expanded its family definition to include chosen family, 686 claims were made for chosen family members. Nearly 80 percent were for a significant other not recognized by law (such as an unregistered domestic partner or fiance), 15 percent for extended family not otherwise covered, and the rest for close family friends, family of the worker’s significant other, individuals for whom the workers had power of attorney, and just under 20 claims were for other individuals such as an ex-spouse or housemate. Washington State Employment Security Department. (2023, June). ESSB 5097 Family Member Expansion Analysis: 2nd Report. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://esd.wa.gov/media/pdf/67/essb-5097-family-member-expansion-analysis-230629pdf/download?inline. For more about family definitions, see A Better Balance and Family Values@Work. (2025, April 2). Fact Sheet: The Importance of Inclusive, Realistic Family Definitions for Paid Leave. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.abetterbalance.org/resources/fact-sheet-importance-of-broad-family-definitions-for-paid-leave/

Chart 4.7 Family Leave by Family Relationship, Washington

Chart 4.8 Family Leave by Family Relationship, Connecticut

Chart 4.9 Family Leave Claims by Family Relationship, Rhode Island

The data illustrates the importance of more complete definitions of “family,” helping a small but meaningful number of workers take care of the people who depend on them and recognizing the reality that family comes in many forms. More education and outreach about eligibility for family caregiving would likely also be helpful, particularly if workers may assume paid leave programs mirror the much narrower definition of family used by the FMLA.

Parental Leave: Men’s Use Increasing in Rhode Island, Approaching Half of Leaves in Washington and Rhode Island

Parental leave provides new parents time to bond with and care for their newborn, newly adopted or foster child. Birthing parents may take paid parental leave in addition to a period of paid medical leave for recovery from pregnancy and childbirth, while for non-birthing parents, paid parental leave is the primary source of this critical bonding time. In addition to supporting the parenting needs of single fathers and fathers in same-sex couples, taking paid parental leave helps fathers who are the spouses, partners or co-parents of women to develop more equitable and involved roles as caregivers,Bartel, A., Rossin-Slater, M., Ruhm, C., Stearns, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2015, November). Paid Family Leave, Fathers’ Leave-Taking, and Leave-Sharing in Dual-Earner Households (Working Paper No. 21747). Retrieved 5 June 2025, from http://www.nber.org/papers/w21747.pdf; Donithen, R., Schoppe-Sullivan, S., Berrigan, M., & Kamp Dush, Claire. (2025, February). When New Fathers Take More Leave, Does Maternal Gatekeeping Decline? Sex Roles, 91(15). doi: 10.1007/s11199-025-01565-7; 0 Nepomnyaschy, L., & Waldfogel, J. (2007). Paternity Leave and Fathers’ Involvement With Their Young Children: Evidence From the American ECLS-B. Community, Work and Family, 10(4), 427-453. doi:10.1080/13668800701575077; Parker, J. J., Simon, C. D., & Garfield, C. F. (2025, February). Fathers’ work leave and infant breastfeeding in a state-representative sample of fathers in Georgia, United States. BMC Public Health, 25, 767. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-22013-x; Persson, P., Rossin-Slater, M. (2019, May). When Dad Can Stay Home: Fathers’ Workplace Flexibility and Maternal Health (Working Paper No. 25902). National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.nber.org/papers/w25902; Petts, R. J., & Knoester, C. (2018, May). Paternity Leave-Taking and Father Engagement. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80(5), 1144-1162. doi: 10.1111/jomf.12494; Petts, R. J., & Knoester, C. (2020, March). Are Parental Relationships Improved if Fathers Take Time Off of Work After the Birth of a Child? Social Forces, 98(3): 1223-1256. doi: 10.1093/sf/soz014 improves the quality of parents’ relationships, supports mothers’ mental health and ability to breastfeed and can even contribute to higher wages for mothers. But fathers in lower-wage jobs and with fewer educational credentials have been less able to take paternity leave in the United States.Petts, R. J., Knoester, C., & Li, Qi. (2018, May). Paid paternity leave-taking in the United States. Community, Work & Family, 23(2), 162-183. doi: 10.1080/13668803.2018.1471589

New mothers are overall well-represented among parental leave claimants, although the very lowest-wage women in Connecticut may face some barriers. The data for men suggest some important advances compared to older programs. In the first three states to offer paid parental leave, men’s share of total claims was fairly low in each program’s first year: about 15 percent in California (2004), 12 percent in New Jersey (2009) and 32 percent in Rhode Island (2014).Mason, J. (2018, July). Meeting the Promise of Paid Leave: Best Practices in State Paid Leave Implementation (p. 8). National Partnership for Women & Families, Main Street Alliance, and National Center for Children in Poverty Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/meeting-the-promise-of-paid-leave.pdf Now, data from Washington and Connecticut both show a stronger start in terms of fathers’ use of leave compared to these older programs, as well as some use by non-binary parents. Men with the very lowest wages are underrepresented, although even among the lowest-paid fathers hundreds per year in each state have been able to take parental leave, and middle-wage men are well-represented among leave-takers.

Washington

By gender, parental leaves are about evenly split in Washington, with women and men making up roughly half of approved claims – a notable milestone.This does not include women who may have taken only a medical leave for pregnancy and/or to recover from birth and did not make a separate claim for parental bonding leave, and so the total number of women who used paid leave related to a new child is likely higher than the number of parental leaves alone. In Washington, low-wage women’s share of parental bonding leave claims (both filed and approved) more closely mirror their share of the labor force and the eligible population, suggesting greater equity in access and use. And women in the middle three wage quintiles are significantly overrepresented in filed and approved claims. But low-wage men make up a particularly small share of filed claims and approved claims for parental leave, as do the highest-wage men. (Some of the latter may be undercounted if they work for the approximately three percent of employers that use private plans to provide paid leave, which are not included in this dataset and which are disproportionately high-wage employers.Employers with private plans include both those with commercial insurance coverage and those who self-insure to meet the state program requirements. Washington Employment Security Department. (2024, December). Legislative Report: Paid Family & Medical Leave Report December 2024 (p. 12). Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://esd.wa.gov/media/pdf/2886/2024-annual-pfml-reportpdf/download?inline) Men in the middle three quintiles are also slightly underrepresented in filed and approved claims. Workers in the other quintiles are about evenly represented among eligible workers as in the labor force as a whole.

Chart 5.1 Women’ Parental Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

Chart 5.2 Men’s Parental Leave Claims, Washington (2020-2022)

While the highest-paid workers are less likely to apply for the program than would be expected based on their share of the eligible labor force, they do still make up a substantial share of program users, indicating that the public paid leave program is a benefit across the income spectrum. Furthermore, higher-paid workers are overrepresented at employers that opted to meet Washington’s paid family and medical leave requirement by providing their own coverage, meaning their claims would not be tracked through the public claims system at this time.Washington State Employment Security Department. (2022, August). Voluntary Plan Costs and Fees. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://media.esd.wa.gov/esdwa/Default/ESDWAGOV/newsroom/Legislative-resources/vp-costs-and-fees-20220621.pdf Many workers in this quintile may still be receiving paid leave thanks to Washington’s requirement that employers participate in the program or provide coverage, but their use is not currently visible in public data. Workers in high-paid jobs are also more likely to have generous paid sick leave or PTO policies,Mason, J. (2024, September 19). It’s a Travesty: Nearly 27 Million Workers Lack Paid Sick Days. National Partnership for Women & Families Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/travesty-27-million-workers-lack-paid-sick-days/ and some may opt to use those benefits instead of applying for the state program, particularly if they were not planning to take a long leave.

Additionally, several dozen new parents who identified their gender as nonbinary or other took parental leaves each year: 52 in 2020, 45 in 2021 and 67 in 2022. This group was too small for subgroup analysis, but sizeable enough to underscore the need for all states to provide applicants options beyond “male” and “female” when asked to report their gender.

Connecticut

Women filed just under 55 percent of parental leave claims in Connecticut, meaning this leave type is close to gender parity. For women and men in the lower two quintiles, trends in use of parental leave are similar to those in medical leave, with men underrepresented in both groups, along with the lowest-wage women, while women in the second quintile, and women and men in the lowest portion of the third quintile, are about evenly represented compared to their share of the eligible population. Women in the highest wage group (earnings high enough to receive the maximum benefit amount) are overrepresented – also similar to medical leave. But where men in this group were underrepresented in medical leave use, they are close to fairly represented as users of parental leave. This points to an opportunity to learn about what factors are enabling these men’s use of parental leave, such as successful public outreach, more supportive workplace cultures, or other reasons.

Chart 5.3 Women’s Parental Leave Claims, Connecticut (2022)

Chart 5.4 Men’s Parental Leave Claims, Connecticut (2022)

A small number of parental leave applications came from individuals who reported their gender as nonbinary. While this group was too small to report, it continues to illuminate the importance of inclusive data collection.Gruberg, S., Gallagher Robbins, K., & Mason, J. (2024, June). How a lack of LGBTQI+ data harms gender justice. National Partnership for Women & Families Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://nationalpartnership.org/lack-of-lgbtqi-data-harms-gender-justice/ Additional years of data could provide a large enough sample to allow analysis in the future.

Rhode Island

Women overall take more leaves related to a new child than men, when including both parental bonding leaves and medical leaves for pregnancy and birth. But looking at parental leaves alone, the gender gap in claims is relatively small: women make about 56 to 57 percent of parental leave claims. Looking deeper, men’s parental leave use is higher among middle- and higher-wage workers, with men underrepresented in the second and especially first wage quintiles.

As with similar patterns to family caregiving leave, the low wage replacement rate is likely a factor, and may have an even stronger effect for new parents in male-female couples. If a new mother already must be out of work to recover from childbirth, and is receiving only about 60 percent of her usual wages at a time when her family has a lot of new expenses, it is all the more difficult for her partner to also take leave that amounts to a large pay cut. Men with higher-paying jobs may be somewhat better able to afford a temporary decline in pay, and those higher-paying jobs are more likely to offer additional leave to top up the state program’s benefits.

Women in the second through fifth quintiles are well-represented among parental leave claimants, a healthy sign in conjunction with the overall utilization rates described below. Even the lowest-wage women are represented well in terms of their share of eligible workers.

But the drop-off between both men’s and women’s share of the labor force and their share of parental leave claims is a concern, pointing to a potential need for more inclusive eligibility rules. Further research is needed to identify exactly how challenging program eligibility is for new parents.

Chart 5.5 Women’s Parental Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

Chart 5.6 Men’s Parental Leave Claims, Rhode Island (2020-2022)

New Parents Increasingly Benefit from State Paid Leave: Majority of Eligible Mothers Take Leave But Room to Grow, Especially for Fathers

In addition to examining whether certain categories of workers are fairly or under-represented among program users, another possible measure of how equitable a paid leave program is how many working people experiencing an eligible condition in the state were able to access paid leave. For example, how many workers in the state recently had a child and are eligible for the program, and how many people filed for parental leave? This can provide a rough measure of how accessible state paid leave is to new parents.The estimates in this section compare the number of paid leave claims to American Community Survey data. An eligible new parent is defined as an adult whose youngest related child in the household is less than one year old, and whose earnings and work history approximately met their state’s paid leave program eligibility rules. Data limitations mean these estimates do not include parents who do not reside in the same household as their child, and the survey only allowed respondents to report their gender as a man or a woman. See Methodology for full explanation. In addition, Washington and Connecticut allow some employers to provide an equivalent paid leave benefit privately; claims made by employees of these employers were not included in the data analyzed here. Research on California, a long-established program with near-universal eligibility, provides one benchmark for newer programs: in California, about 47 percent of employed new mothers and 12 percent of employed new fathers made a bonding claim in 2014, a decade after initial program implementation.Bana, S. H., Bedard, K., & Rossin-Slater, M. (2018, May). Trends and Disparities in Leave Use Under California’s Paid Family Leave Program: New Evidence from Administrative Data. AEA Papers & Proceedings, 108, 388-391. doi: 10.1257/pandp.20181113

In Rhode Island, our analysis suggests that more than 70 to 80 percent of mothers eligible for paid leave made a claim related to pregnancy, birth or parental bonding from 2020 to 2022.An individual giving birth could take medical leave (temporary disability insurance) for pregnancy complications and/or childbirth recovery, parental leave to bond with and care for the newborn infant, or both (“transitional leave”). This analysis counts the number of claimants each year who had an approved claim for at least one of those reasons. The share of eligible new fathers taking parental leave was lower, but significantly above the 2014 California benchmark, ranging from just over one-third to about 45 percent of new fathers between 2020 and 2022.

In Washington, usage of paid parental leave by both new mothers and fathers increased across the program’s first three years. In 2020, about one-quarter of new fathers took parental leave, rising to more than 40 percent by 2022. For new mothers, claims for parental leaveThis analysis looked only at parental bonding leaves, potentially excluding any new mothers who took medical leave for pregnancy or childbirth recovery but did not take additional parental bonding leave. In data for much of this period, Washington did not separately track medical leaves related to pregnancy or birth, and data provided did not include information about individuals who took both medical and parental leave. amounted to just short of 60 percent in 2020 and increased to about two-thirds by 2022.

Table 6.1 Share of New Mothers Taking Leave by State

Table 6.2 Share of New Fathers Taking Leave by State

Connecticut appears to have somewhat lower use by new mothers compared to the other states, with the number of claims for parental bonding leave amounting to around 50 percent of new mothers.Similar to Washington’s data, this estimate may underestimate the total number of mothers who took leave for a new child because it does not include new mothers who took medical leave for pregnancy or childbirth recovery but did not take additional parental bonding leave. For new fathers, use in Connecticut’s second year appears similar to that in Washington’s first, with about one-third of new fathers taking leave.For this portion of the analysis, Connecticut’s data was grouped for fiscal year 2022, April 2022 through March 2023, to be more comparable to a single year of new parents. Further research may investigate whether the relatively low benefit cap in Connecticut discourages middle- and higher-wage fathers from taking leave, as well as whether private administration has impacted approval rates in more recent years.

Across states, a large share of eligible new parents – even a majority in some states and years – have used state paid leave programs to recover from birth and care for new children, and our data suggest these programs may also be part of a culture shift toward greater gender equity in parental leave use. Still, a sizable share of new parents who should be eligible do not yet appear to be using state paid leave. Research should continue to investigate the causes of this underuse, whether they are aspects of program design (such as eligibility rules or benefit caps), program implementation (issues with the application process or approvals) or external factors such as stigma around or low knowledge of government programs.

Spotlight on Washington: Racial and Gender Equity and Paid Leave

Washington state was one of the first programs to ask applicants to voluntarily self-identify their race and/or ethnicity. For claimants who provided this information, the data allow a much finer-grained understanding of program use not only by race and ethnicity, but also along intersectional lines.In this dataset, only about three to five percent of claimants declined to provide a race or ethnicity (“Prefer not to say”), varying slightly by year and leave type. Overall, initial program data is promising, showing that Washington paid leave is being used broadly across racial and ethnic groups, although there are some gaps.

These charts illustrate the number of claims filed and approved as a share of each group’s population – approximating the percentage of individuals in each group who filed a claim each year. Looking at medical leave claims, overall, the share of eligible workers who filed a claim in Washington ranged from 2.1 percent in 2020 to 3.3 percent in 2022, and the share whose claims were approved was 1.6 percent to 2.7 percent over the same period.

Overall, a smaller share of men than women filed medical leave claims and had claims approved. This is likely driven by claims related to pregnancy and childbirth. In this dataset, it was not possible to separate pregnancy and birth-related claims from other reasons for medical leave, but as researchers are able to look separately at these types of claims in later program data, it will be important to identify whether men’s lower use rates are persistent.

Chart 7.1 Women’s Medical Leave Utilization Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington (2020-2022)

Chart 7.2 Men’s Medical Leave Utilization Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

In a positive trend, use increased across nearly all groups through the first three years of the program, a sign that program awareness and knowledge about how to file claims has been spreading broadly and not only within some demographics. However, some groups are significantly less likely to file claims than average – particularly Latino men and multiracial men and women – indicating possible barriers to accessing leave. One possibility is lower access to job protection: in general, Latino workers are less likely to be eligible for job protection through the Family and Medical Leave Act,Joshi. P, Walters, A. N., Wong, E. et al. (2023, March 1). Inequitable access to FMLA continues. diversitydatakids.org at the Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity & Healthy Development at Boston University School of Social Work Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.diversitydatakids.org/research-library/data-visualization/inequitable-access-fmla-continues. Note that this analysis excludes self-employed workers, and so may actually underestimate any eligibility barriers due to employers misclassifying employees as “independent contractors.” Latino workers are disproportionately affected when labor laws exempt small employers, like the FMLA, and are a substantial share of the workforce in some occupations that experience high rates of misclassification including construction. See Schmitt, J., Shierholz, H., Poydock, M., & Sanders, S. (2023, January). The economic costs of worker misclassification. Economic Policy Institute Publication. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.epi.org/publication/cost-of-misclassification/; National Employment Law Project. (2020, October). Independent Contractor Misclassification Imposes Huge Costs on Workers and Federal and State Treasuries. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://www.nelp.org/insights-research/independent-contractor-misclassification-imposes-huge-costs-workers-federal-state-treasuries-update-october-2020/ and a recent analysis from the University of Washington found that even Latino workers who were able to use Washington paid leave were less likely to have job protection than average, as were Black and American Indian/Alaska Native workers.Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington. (2021, December 1). WA Paid Family and Medical Leave & Job Protection: Preliminary Legislative Report. Retrieved 5 June 2025, from https://app.leg.wa.gov/ReportsToTheLegislature/Home/GetPDF?fileName=UW%20Paid%20Leave%20Job%20Protection%20Prelim%20Leg%20Report_f5447244-0790-4742-90c5-488f05b45769.pdf This spring, a law was enacted to expand access to job protection in Washington; when fully phased in, this law will mean that employees who have worked for their employer – with eight or more employees – for at least 180 days will have their job protected, with a number of exemptions.H.R. 1213, 69th Leg., Reg. Sess. (Wash. 2025).

Across most groups, the drop-off between the share filing a claim and the share with an approved claim was about the same, indicating that most groups were not facing disproportionate challenges with claim approval. However, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) men were an outlier. Further research should look for trends in the reasons their claims are being denied to identify whether men in this group are experiencing particular challenges.

Larger shares of each group of women file and receive medical leave claims, compared to men in each racial/ethnic group. In 2021 and 2022, NHPI women and Black women were most likely to file a medical leave claim and most likely to have an accepted claim, followed by white women, Asian American women, American Indian/Alaska Native women and Latina women. Overall, the drop-off between filing and approval was smaller for each group of women than men, although was slightly larger for American Indian/Alaska Native, Black and multiracial women than other groups of women. Future research could examine whether these smaller gaps are driven by women’s pregnancy and childbirth claims (a medical need that may be more familiar to all stakeholders involved in claims paperwork), or whether even after accounting for differences in conditions women still are less likely to have medical claims denied.

Chart 7.3 Women’s Family Leave Utilization Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

Chart 7.4 Men’s Family Leave Utilization Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

Trends are generally similar in family leave, although overall utilization rates are lower for both men and women across racial/ethnic groups.

Chart 7.5 Women’s Parental Leave Utilization Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

Chart 7.6 Men’s Parental Leave Utilization Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

Looking at parental leave claims, use was somewhat higher across nearly all racial/ethnic groups compared to family leave, with the exception of American Indian/Alaska Native workers, who had lower than average use of all three types of leave. Given the health and economic inequities that Native workers and families experience, this is concerning. Other implementation research has pointed to shortfalls in the state’s engagement of Tribal governments and communities as one important barrier to address.Abrahamson-Richards, Teresa (Tess). (2024, July). Pursuing Equitable Implementation of State Paid Family Leave Policies: A Case Study From Washington State on the Role of Tribal Engagement and Sovereignty. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services. Online first. doi: 10.1177/10443894241244400

Chart 7.7 Women’s Claim Approval Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

Chart 7.8 Men’s Claims Approval Rate by Race/Ethnicity, Washington

There is also some variation in approval rates for parental leave claims by both gender and race. Overall, women’s parental leave claims are more likely to be approved than men’s, and white and Asian American applicants’ claims were more likely to be approved than those of other groups. Approval rates also tended to improve between 2020 (the first year of the program) and 2022, particularly for Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and NHPI. The trend toward improved equity in approval rates is encouraging, although further research would be needed to identify whether this was due to improved outreach and education to ensure applicants were better educated about eligibility rules up front or more prepared to submit the right documentation and information, better follow-up with applicants whose initial applications were incomplete, or other causes.

Conclusion

Data from the first years post-implementation of paid family and medical leave in Washington and Connecticut, and a comparable period in Rhode Island, illustrate both the impact and potential of these programs. In Rhode Island, use overall is higher than in the other two states, while use has increased over time in Washington and Connecticut. Encouragingly, Washington and Connecticut have shown strong initial use of parental leave by both men and women compared to older state programs in their first years, as well as uptake among gender-nonbinary parents. These trends illustrate that it takes some time for workers and employers to become familiar with paid leave, when to use it and how to apply for it, but that dedicated outreach plans during initial implementation can help. Higher and sliding-scale wage replacement rates also likely encourage men’s uptake of leave in Washington and Connecticut, while also helping to keep women’s average weekly benefits closer to men’s despite gender wage gaps.

Across the primary types of leave (medical, family caregiving and parental), women overall tend to apply for and take leave at slightly higher rates than men. But programs are used by workers regardless of gender, and lower- to middle-wage men are fairly well-represented among leave-takers. Notably, while in Rhode Island family caregiving leave shows the largest gap in use between women and men, with women taking 69 to 76 percent of leaves, disparities are smaller in Connecticut and Washington. In addition, newly-available data by race/ethnicity and gender from Washington provide an early snapshot of trends that had not been possible to examine in state paid leave until recently.

The analysis also suggests that the very lowest-wage workers – those in the lowest-paid fifth of each state’s workforce – are underrepresented in both applying for and receiving leave benefits, while those in the next three wage groups (low- to middle-wage workers) are better-represented. But reviewing claims by both gender and wage level uncovers more complex interactions, with the lowest-wage women more likely to apply for and take leaves than the lowest-wage men. It is important to note that workers in the second-lowest wage group are fairly represented in leave use across most categories, indicating that paid leave programs are being used by a large share of low-wage workers. But more needs to be done to identify barriers and ensure that no worker who needs paid leave for their health or loved ones is unable to access it.

Overall, the data show that use is broadening and becoming more equitable, and that further improvements are achievable. Lessons from Rhode Island, Washington, Connecticut and other existing programs should encourage as well as guide policymakers across the country as more states continue to enact, implement and innovate on their own paid family and medical leave programs.

The author would like to thank Anwesha Majumder for her substantial contribution checking the claims data analysis, as well as Anushey Ahmed, Kate Gallagher Robbins, Sharita Gruberg, Tanya Goldman, Mettabel Law, Grace Nielson, Udochi Onwubeku and Gail Zuagar for their contributions to this report. In addition, external reviews and feedback from Gayle Goldin, Vicki Shabo, Molly Weston Williamson and Gabriela Quintano. The National Partnership thanks the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority, Washington State Employment Security Department and Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training for generously sharing data and for their ongoing work to implement and strengthen their states’ paid leave programs.

Appendix: Detailed Claims Tables

A.1 Eligibility for Paid Leave by Demographic, Washington

A.2 Eligibility for Paid Leave by Demographic, Connecticut

A.3 Eligibility for Paid Leave by Demographic, Rhode Island

A.4 Summary Data: Medical Leave Claims, Washington

A.5 Summary Data: Family Leave Claims, Washington

A.6 Summary Data: Parental Leave Claims, Washington

A.7 Summary Data: Family Leave Claims by Care Recipient, Washington

A.8 Medical Leave Duration by Gender, Washington

A.9 Family Leave Duration by Gender, Washington

A.10 Parental Leave Duration by Gender, Washington

A.11 Summary Data: Family and Medical Leave Claims, Connecticut

A.12 Summary Data: Family Leave Claims by Care Recipient, Connecticut

A.13 Claims by Duration, Connecticut

A.14 Summary Data: Medical Leave Claims, Rhode Island

A.15 Summary Data: Family Leave Claims, Rhode Island

A.16 Summary Data: Parental Leave Claims, Rhode Island

A.17 Family Leave Claims by Care Recipient, Rhode Island

A.18 Claims by Duration, Rhode Island

Methodology

Labor force and eligibility analyses

Estimates of state labor force and eligible population (overall and by demographic) all use ACS data accessed via IPUMS. Because the eligibility determination for claimants generally involves a five-quarter lookback period, the labor force/eligible comparison for each year of claims data is the previous year (e.g. 2020 claims are compared to 2019 data). Additionally, because 2020 ACS data is not preferred due to pandemic impacts, all 2021 claims also compare to 2019 ACS data. This adjustment also follows the practice of the Washington State ESD (for example, in how they determined wage quintiles in the prepared tables), and so provides for consistency across states. Washington and Connecticut use 1-year data; Rhode Island uses 5-year data for race/ethnicity to allow more subgroup analysis given the state’s small population. Cells with fewer than 30 cases were excluded.

Following the practice of Washington ESD, racial groups in ACS analyses include individuals who identify as Hispanic, and Hispanic includes individuals of any race. Totals thus may add to more than 100%.

Eligibility definitions were determined based on the closest reasonable fit between available ACS categories and statute text.

• Rhode Island: Wage income greater than an annual threshold, $12,600 in 2019 and $13,800 in 2021. (Actual eligibility is wages of at least the annual threshold in the top four of five completed quarter base periods, or meeting a mixed threshold of a minimum one-quarter earning and minimum base period earnings.)
• Washington: In labor force and usual hours of work greater than or equal to 15. (Actual eligibility is 820 hours worked over four of five completed quarters, equating to an average of 15.7 hours per week over a year.)
• Connecticut: In labor force and wage income greater than or equal to $9,300. (Actual eligibility is $2,325 in highest-earning quarter of base period and employed in previous 12 weeks.)

Wage gap analyses

State-level wage gap calculations are based on ACS 1-year data, with statewide estimates drawn from tables available at data.census.gov. See What’s the Wage Gap in the States for details.

Parental leave utilization

Estimates of the number of eligible new parents in each state are based on ACS 1-year data accessed via IPUMS. An eligible new parent is defined as an adult whose youngest related child in the household is less than one year old, and whose earnings and work history approximately met their state’s paid leave program eligibility rules (see above). Data limitations mean these estimates do not include parents who do not reside in the same household as their child, and the survey only allowed respondents to report their gender as a man or a woman. 2020 and 2021 parental leave claims are compared to ACS data for 2019, and 2022 claims to ACS data for 2021.

Data for Washington and Connecticut did not include information about whether a given claimant received both medical leave for pregnancy and/or childbirth and parental bonding leave, which birthing parents may often do. To avoid potentially double-counting claimants, the number of parental leaves for women in these two states is limited to parental bonding leaves only. For Rhode Island, data permitted the analysis to identify the number of unique claimants who received either medical leave for pregnancy/childbirth, parental bonding leave, or both.

State claims data

Washington: he Washington Employment Security Department provided data tables for three calendar years from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022. Dataset does not include a small number of claims still under review at that time (72 for the three-year period). Approval rates and gender gaps in benefits calculation by the author. Individual data cells with fewer than 30 claims (as well as related data for average duration, weekly benefit and approval rate) were suppressed to protect privacy.

Connecticut: The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority provided claims data for a 12-month fiscal year from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023, described as FY 2022 throughout this report. (Data did not include personal or protected health information such as name, contact information or diagnosis.) Claims were analyzed by the author. Individual data cells with fewer than 30 claims (as well as related data for average duration, weekly benefit and approval rate) are suppressed to protect privacy.

Parental bonding claims include adoption and foster care claims, and medical claims include claims for bone marrow donation and organ donation, which were not separately analyzed for this report. Claims data did not include claimants’ base wages. For this analysis, claimants’ wages were estimated based on their weekly benefit amount, excluding claims with no reported benefit amount (which included most denied claims) and intermittent/reduced schedule claims, and assigned to the first three earnings quintile. Earnings in the middle of the third quintile begin to reach the weekly benefit cap; these claimants were all assigned to the “High” wage level. Because it was not possible to estimate wage level for most denied claims, these claims are not included in wage level analyses and so approval rates were not calculated.

Rhode Island: The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training provided claims data for three calendar years from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022. (Data did not include personal or protected health information such as name, contact information or diagnosis.) Claims were analyzed by the author. Individual data cells with fewer than 30 claims (as well as related data for average duration, weekly benefit and approval rate) were suppressed to protect privacy.

Claims data for most applicants only included base wages for a person’s first claim in one year (about three-quarters of claims each year). To estimate wage quintiles for as many claims as possible, the analysis assumes that for any base quarter without wage information, base wages were the same as reported for that same quarter in the applicant’s previous claim with data provided (in other words, carries forward the reported base wages for a given quarter to all subsequent claims without wage data for that quarter).

Earnings Quintiles/Levels by State by Year

The cutoffs for wage quintiles/levels were determined using ACS 1-year microdata accessed via IPUMS for Rhode Island and Connecticut, and analyzed using the R spatstat package. Quintiles were provided by the Washington Employment Security Department for Washington. Below are the levels used to assign a quintile/level to each claims, based on the calendar year the claim was filed.

A.19 Earnings Quintiles/Levels by State

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