Working on Parental Leave: The Case for a Federal Paid Family Leave Policy

Abstract

This research investigates the issues surrounding parental leave policy in the United States, with an emphasis on the implications of the policy on women’s careers, labor force participation, and salaries. To do so, the research begins with an analysis of current United States family leave policy at the federal, state, and corporate level. The text then transitions to a discussion of the sociological and psychological factors that influence the decisions pertaining to career and household, some of which are related to the policy discussed in the first chapter. The implications of both the policy and psychology of career are quantified in the third chapter of the text, which analyzes salary and labor force participation among men and women of varying levels of educational attainment. The fourth chapter closely examines the responses of young men and women at Princeton University to ascertain the perspectives of incoming labor force participants. This research finds that the wage gap between men and women is extremely significant, and that this discrepancy in income, parental leave policy, and the psychology of men and women, contribute to an unequal labor force for men and women across all levels of career, education, and income. This research implies that there is a severe need for a national paid family leave policy in the United States that provides benefits to individuals for a specific time when leave is necessary due to the birth or adoption of a child, personal illness or disability, or the need to care for a family member. The most successful form of that policy would include an insurance program that individuals could draw on when leave is necessary.