IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mts/wpaper/200407.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of Government-Mandated Family Leave on Employer Family Leave Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Charles L. Baum

Abstract

The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave to address family issues. Twelve states and the District of Columbia passed similar legislation antedating the FMLA. However, studies in the economics literature find either small or insignificant effects of the legislation on employment, leave-taking, work, and wages. Perhaps employees are unable to use the mandated leave because it is unpaid and/or they do not need family leave because they already have the option of taking off work via vacation, sick leave, and disability leave policies. If so, then family leave legislation may have increased employer-provided family leave without corresponding effects on employment-related outcomes. This paper examines family leave legislation’s effects on employers’ family leave policies, finding significant positive effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles L. Baum, 2004. "The Effect of Government-Mandated Family Leave on Employer Family Leave Policies," Working Papers 200407, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:mts:wpaper:200407
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://capone.mtsu.edu/berc/working/Newton%20IV.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gruber, Jonathan & Madrian, Brigitte C, 1995. "Health-Insurance Availability and the Retirement Decision," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(4), pages 938-948, September.
    2. Jonathan Gruber, 1992. "The Efficiency of a Group-Specific Mandated Benefit: Evidence From Health Insurance Benefits for Maternity," NBER Working Papers 4157, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Gruber, Jonathan, 1994. "The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 622-641, June.
    4. Charles L. Baum II, 2003. "The Effects of Maternity Leave Legislation on Mothers' Labor Supply after Childbirth," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(4), pages 772-799, April.
    5. Waldfogel, Jane, 1998. "The Family Gap for Young Women in the United States and Britain: Can Maternity Leave Make a Difference?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(3), pages 505-545, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Baum, Charles II, 2003. "The effect of state maternity leave legislation and the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act on employment and wages," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 573-596, October.
    2. Charles L. Baum, 2006. "The Effects Of Government‐Mandated Family Leave On Employer Family Leave Policies," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(3), pages 432-445, July.
    3. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2021. "Too family friendly? The consequences of parent part-time working rights," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    4. Jonathan Gruber, 1998. "Health Insurance and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 6762, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2005. "How Does Job-Protected Maternity Leave Affect Mothers' Employment and Infant Health?," NBER Working Papers 11135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Barbara Hanel, 2012. "The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Labour Market Outcomes," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2012n19, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    7. Christine Jolls, 2007. "Employment Law and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 13230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Bradley Heim & Ithai Lurie & Kosali Simon, 2015. "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Tax Data," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 133-157.
    9. Jennifer Feenstra Schultz & David Doorn, 2009. "Employer Health Benefit Costs and Demand for Part-Time Labor," Working Papers 09-08, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    10. Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2013. "Can Parents' Right to Work Part-Time Hurt Childbearing-Aged Women? A Natural Experiment with Administrative Data," IZA Discussion Papers 7509, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Brigitte C. Madrian, 2005. "The U.S. health care system and labor markets," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 50(Jun), pages 137-163.
    12. Molina, José Alberto & Montuenga, Víctor M., 2008. "The Motherhood Wage Penalty in a Mediterranean Country: The Case of Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 3574, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. E. Mark Curtis & Barry T. Hirsch & Mary C. Schroeder, 2016. "Evaluating Workplace Mandates with Flows Versus Stocks: An Application to California Paid Family Leave," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(2), pages 501-526, October.
    14. Maya Rossin-Slater, 2017. "Maternity and Family Leave Policy," NBER Working Papers 23069, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2008. "How Does Job-Protected Maternity Leave Affect Mothers' Employment?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(4), pages 655-691, October.
    16. Schönberg, Uta & Ludsteck, Johannes, 2007. "Maternity Leave Legislation, Female Labor Supply, and the Family Wage Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 2699, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ekberg, John & Eriksson, Rickard & Friebel, Guido, 2013. "Parental leave — A policy evaluation of the Swedish “Daddy-Month” reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 131-143.
    18. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 1996. "Health Insurance and Early Retirement: Evidence from the Availability of Continuation Coverage," NBER Chapters, in: Advances in the Economics of Aging, pages 115-146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Glied, Sherry & Stabile, Mark, 2001. "Avoiding health insurance crowd-out: evidence from the medicare as secondary payer legislation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 239-260, March.
    20. Brenøe, Anne Ardila & Canaan, Serena & Harmon, Nikolaj & Royer, Heather, 2019. "Is Parental Leave Costly for Firms and Coworkers?," IZA Discussion Papers 12870, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor Supply; Maternity Leave; Family and Medical Leave Act; FMLA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mts:wpaper:200407. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/efmtsus.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: E. Anthon Eff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/efmtsus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.