Paid Leave Mandates and Care for Older Parents

Area of Science:

• Sociology of Health and Illness
• Public Health Policy
• Gerontology

Background:

• Family caregivers are crucial for long-term care, but caregiving often conflicts with employment.
• Existing unpaid leave (Family and Medical Leave Act) is insufficient for many employed caregivers.
• State-level Paid Sick Leave (PSL) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) policies have emerged to address these challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of state and local Paid Sick Leave (PSL) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) policies on the likelihood of adult children providing personal care to their older parents.
• To analyze how different policy designs, such as job protection and concurrent availability of PSL and PFL, influence care provision.

Main Methods:

• Utilized longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study (1998-2020).
• Employed difference-in-differences regression models to assess the association between paid leave mandates and eldercare provision.
• Examined heterogeneous effects across different demographic subgroups and policy features.

Main Results:

• Paid Sick Leave (PSL) adoption was linked to a 4-5 percentage point increase in personal care provision.
• The positive effect of PSL was primarily observed when both PSL and Paid Family Leave (PFL) were concurrently available.
• Paid Family Leave (PFL) alone showed no significant association with care provision unless it included job protection.

Conclusions:

• Paid leave policies have varied effects on eldercare, influenced by policy design and individual characteristics.
• Combined PSL and PFL policies, particularly those with job protection, show promise in supporting family caregivers.
• Careful consideration of paid leave policy design is essential for effectively supporting eldercare provision.