New York’s Paid Family Leave Policy Shows Benefits for Both Mothers and Children
ALBANY, N.Y. (May 1, 2023) - Public health policy researchers from the University at Albany and the Department of Health have been evaluating the impact of New York’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) legislation and have found that the policy has had multiple benefits on families across New York.
New York’s PFL law enables eligible employees to take paid time off from their jobs to bond with a newly born, adopted or fostered child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or assist a loved one when a close relative is deployed abroad on active military service. The employee who takes PFL receives partial wage replacement, continuation of health insurance and protection from discrimination or retaliation while they are on leave, meaning that they will face fewer financial struggles than if PFL was not an option.
In 2016, when New York enacted PFL legislation, New York was one of only five states in the United States to offer paid family leave, while today there are 11 states with PFL programs in place. New York’s PFL benefit took effect in 2018, providing eight weeks of leave paid at up to 50 percent of wages, which increased to 12 weeks paid at up to 67 percent wage replacement in 2021 and beyond.
“Use of paid leave after childbirth— one the most common reasons someone would take PFL— is associated with improved physical and mental health for mothers, better health outcomes for infants, and decreased infant mortality,” says Dr. Barbara A. Dennison from the School of Public Health and the New York State Department of Health. “Despite this, the U.S. is the only industrialized country and just one of three countries worldwide that does not have a national program to provide paid leave to women after childbirth.”
More Equitable and Increased Use of Paid Leave After Childbirth
Dr. Trang Nguyen, Butho Ncube and Dr. Dennison, all from the School of Public Health and the New York State Department of Health, assessed the use of paid maternity leave before and after PFL went into effect in New York State. They used data, collected via mail and telephone from women who had recently given birth, from the New York State Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, to assess changes.
“In other states that implemented a paid leave policy, we saw that uptake of PFL was slow and uneven, particularly among people of color, workers with lower educational backgrounds, and those who earn lower wages,” Dr. Nguyen explains. “We wanted to see how the type of leave used by women after childbirth changed after the New York’s PFL legislation took effect, and if there were differences for particular racial/ethnic groups.”
Prior to New York’s PFL, 56 percent of women reported taking some type of paid leave after childbirth. The team’s work found that there was a 26 percent increase in women taking paid leave after birth once PFL went into effect, with 70 percent of working women reporting taking a paid leave. The increase in uptake was greater for Black women when compared to other racial/ethnic groups.
“It is widely known that Black women in the United States face significant health disparities. This study showed that policies such as PFL can help to redress the disproportionate burden of health inequities among people of color,” says Ncube.
The full report can be viewed in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.
Increased Breastfeeding After Paid Family Leave Policy
Before New York’s Paid Family Leave policy, Black women were least likely among new mothers to initiate breastfeeding and would typically breastfeed for a shorter duration than other mothers.
However, research by Drs. Dennison, Nguyen, and colleagues, published in Breastfeeding Medicine, shows that implementation of New York’s PFL law is associated with increased breastfeeding among Black women.
According to the CDC, breastfeeding provides optimal nutrition and health benefits for infants and mothers. It can help to support a baby’s growth and development and can protect both the mother and the baby from various illnesses and diseases. Breastfed infants have reduced risks of infections (including ear infections, lower respiratory infections and diarrhea), chronic diseases (asthma, obesity, type 1 diabetes), sudden infant death syndrome, and for preterm infants, necrotizing enterocolitis. Women who breastfeed have a lower risk of developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer.
“New York PFL appears to have had a greater impact on women of color, who were less likely to have had access to employer-sponsored PFL, or who could not afford to take unpaid leave prior,” Dr. Nguyen notes.
“Because Black women had the lowest breastfeeding rates, there was more room to improve. After New York PFL was in effect, Black women experienced greater increases in breastfeeding initiation and longer breastfeeding duration, which helped close the gap compared to other racial/ethnic groups,” explains Dr. Dennison.
The team suggests that “more widespread implementation of PFL programs in the United States would promote increased equity in the use of paid leave, which could reduce disparities in breastfeeding initiation and duration and possibly improve infant and maternal health outcomes.”
Increase in Timeliness of Childhood Immunizations
Pinka Chatterji (professor in UAlbany’s Department of Economics) and faculty at the School of Public Health recently examined the early immunization schedules recommended for infants.
Drs. Chatterji, Nguyen, and Dennison tested whether implementation of New York’s PFL was associated with the timeliness of early immunization for infants and how it changed after NY PFL was implemented.
“Staying up-to-date on immunizations typically requires parents to take time off from work, and thus it may be a health behavior that is particularly sensitive to having access to paid leave,” says Chatterji.
The researchers compared immunization outcomes before and after PFL went into effect, looking at both mothers who were employed during pregnancy and those who were not employed. Implementation of New York PFL legislation was found to be associated with an increase in probability of a mother’s firstborn child receiving all recommended vaccinations at 2 months and at 4 months of age.
Dr. Dennison notes that “infants who receive recommended immunizations on-time have the greatest protection from these vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The full published report can be found in Social Science and Medicine.