Among new US dads, 64% take less than two weeks of leave after baby is born
Lack of leave means missing important time to bond with babies, support mothers
- Only 36% of dads reported taking more than two weeks of paternal family leave
- Findings support U.S. lagging ‘behind the rest of the world in availability of paid family leave’
- ‘If there was paid family leave, fathers would have fewer barriers, and they’d take it’
CHICAGO --- When it comes to family leave, American fathers are left behind.
In a survey of new fathers led by scientists at Northwestern University and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, 64% of fathers reported taking less than two weeks of leave or no leave after the birth of their child. Only 36% of dads reported taking more than two weeks of leave. The survey is the first of a state-representative sample of fathers.
In the survey, fathers reported that the main barrier to taking any leave or longer leave was a fear of losing their job.
“We know the U.S. lags behind the rest of the world in availability of paid family leave,” said corresponding study author Clarissa Simon, research associate at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and senior research scientist at Lurie Children’s.“We still are not there yet. What we found with this study is that if there was the availability of paid leave, fathers would have fewer barriers, and they’d take it.”
The findings were published June 10 in the journal Pediatrics. They are the first to describe work-leave practices among a representative sample of all dads listed on the birth certificate in Georgia, including patterns and factors related to their paternal leave.
Previous research at Northwestern has found that new fathers play an important role in the health and wellbeing of children and families, including helping mothers breastfeed for longer durations and influencing whether an infant is placed to sleep safely.
“It’s not always an easy time — you’re sleep deprived, it’s not fun — but it’s part of being a dad,” Simon said. “Fathers can and should experience the pains and the joys of parenthood, and the best way to do that is if they can take a break from work to spend time with their new baby without financial barriers or stressors like fear of job loss.”
It’s also valuable for fathers to be involved from the very beginning to more easily transition to fatherhood, Simon said.
“They don’t go through pregnancy, so they have the baby and then they realize ‘Oh, I’m a dad now,’” Simon said. “Without leave, they do not have time to fully engage with their families in this new chapter. This is one of the first data sets to be able to answer this question.”
‘There isn’t any other data like this’
The scientists used data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System for Dads (PRAMS for Dads survey), which was created by Northwestern University’s Dr. Craig Garfield and first piloted in Georgia in 2018. They analyzed answers from a representative sample of 261 fathers in the state of Georgia who were surveyed two to six months after the birth of their child (between October 2018 to July 2019).
Of the 261 respondents, 240 were employed while their infants’ mother was pregnant. Of employed fathers, 73% reported taking any leave (paid or unpaid). Among fathers taking leave, 53% reported at least some paid leave.
“The research is clear in the U.S. and abroad that fathers want to be there and be involved with their newborns, and when they are there at the beginning, it predicts much greater involvement when that baby is 9 or 12 months old,” said Garfield, professor of pediatrics and medical social sciences at Feinberg and a physician at Lurie Children’s. “That involvement is good for the baby, good for the mom and good for the dad, too. So, if we want to ensure the best outcomes for our babies, we ought to be creating policies that support fathers from the first days of a baby’s life.”
“There isn’t any other public health data like this,” Simon said. “There is no more recent or national data other than what we’re collecting right now, and there’s no reason to think those results won’t be repeated.
Simon and her colleagues are scaling up the survey and collecting additional data in eight states: Georgia, Ohio, North Dakota, Massachusetts, parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Maine.
Moving forward, any parent will be able to complete the survey, making it a gender-neutral survey. The goal is to reach fathers and non-birthing parents to understand the behaviors and experiences of any parent raising infants, Simon said.
More about the PRAMS for Dads survey
The survey is the first-ever public health monitoring of fathers in the period from pregnancy through the first year of the infant’s life. It collects data on fathers’ physical and mental health, access to health care, use of family leave, infant engagement (safe sleep, breastfeeding) and support of mom in the immediate months after the birth. And it is inclusive — meaning the survey applies to whatever family constellation exists — same-sex, cis-gender, etc.
The tool was modeled after PRAMS, an annual surveillance tool the CDC and public health departments have used for more than 35 years to survey new mothers. PRAMS for Dads is, for the first time, providing data on the unique needs of new fathers. The survey gathers data on the health behaviors and experiences of men as they enter fatherhood.
Garfield is the senior author on the study. Other Northwestern and Lurie Children’s authors include Dr. John James Parker, Dr. Katherine Bean and Anne Bendelow.
Funding for the study was provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention (grant U38OT00140) and CDC 2015 Innovation Fund, Office of Science and Office of Technology and Innovation.
Journal
PEDIATRICS
Article Title
Paternal Leave Practices Among a Representative Sample of Recent Fathers in Georgia: 2018-2019
Article Publication Date
10-Jun-2025
Earned sick leave alone is not enough for uninsured US workers
Texas A&M School of Public Health study finds discrepancies to care access among industry types
Texas A&M University
Earned sick leave—short-term, paid time off for employees who are sick or injured or must care for sick or injured family members—has been found to reduce the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace and increase employee access to preventive care.
Since 2019, seven states have implemented laws requiring employers to offer earned sick leave, bringing the total to 18 (plus Washington, D.C.). Despite this growth, however, little has been known until now about the policy’s effects on worker well-being across various industries.
“This is important because both the short- and long-term benefits of earned sick leave might vary by industry,” said health policy expert Hannah I. Rochford, PhD. “For example, in industries that have higher injury rates, such as construction, earned sick leave may encourage injured workers to take time off for treatment and recuperation, which helps prevent more serious musculoskeletal disorders later on.”
For their study, published in Safety and Health at Work, Rochford and occupational health and safety researcher Aurora B. Le, PhD, both with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, used natural policy variation, quasi-experimental methods and nationally representative datasets to causally explore how earned sick leave laws impact rates of reportable nonfatal illness or injury across major industry categories.
They obtained annual state rates of occupational nonfatal illness or injury reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for each North American Industry Classification and the earned sick leave policy data from Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research’s Law Atlas. They also excluded the 11 states that adopted earned sick leave policies after 2020 given the confounding impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on interpreting the policies’ impact.
“We found that states that implemented earned sick leave prior to 2019 saw a marginally significant increase in the rates of illness and injury reporting across industries after these policies were introduced,” Le said.
She said this uptick suggests that sick or injured employees were more likely to report their conditions since doing so would not result in retaliation or job loss.
On the other hand, employees who were uninsured or faced similar financial barriers to getting care and employees with social and/or legal barriers to getting care (such as undocumented workers) did not appear to benefit from earned sick policies.
“Male workers in high-risk industries like construction, agriculture and transportation face higher rates of illness or injury than their female counterparts, and this may desensitize them to frequent illnesses or injuries and the need to take time off,” Le said. “Similarly, undocumented workers could be disincentivized to use sick leave because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves or go against group norms.”
The study also identified other factors that affected the use of earned sick leave. Employees in unions, for example, were 10 percent more likely to have earned sick leave than their counterparts in non-union organizations.
Le said “union busting” by corporations and the passage of state right-to-work laws has led to a decline in union membership, which gives nonunionized employees even less bargaining power for earned sick leave policies.
“Earned sick leave policies alone are necessary but not sufficient to advance worker health,” Rochford said. “There is a need for strategies that increase insurance access and, for undocumented workers and others facing social and/or legal barriers, for training, education and resources on their rights using the appropriate language and literacy level.”
By Ann Kellett, Texas A&M University School of Public Health
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Journal
Safety and Health at Work
Article Title
Impact of Earned Sick Leave Policy on Worker Wellbeing Across Industries
Article Publication Date
14-Jun-2025
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