The Landscape of Parental Leave-Taking in the United States

Abstract

Despite its importance for maternal health, child well-being and gender equality, little is known about parents’ work and leave-taking in the weeks around childbirth. Leveraging new data linkages, this paper shows that roughly one-quarter of mothers actively work in the first weeks postpartum. Parental leave lasts 7.2 weeks for mothers and 3 days for fathers. Despite expanding access to benefits, maternity leave has declined in recent decades. We supplement these findings with a novel analysis of time use data in the first 5 months of parenthood, showing that parental leave is associated with greater childcare and educational investments from parents.