Don't Get Left Behind in the Changing Parental Leave Landscape
No matter the results of the November election!
Essential Takeaways (TLDR):
- State-Level Progress: With 13 states plus D.C. having ratified paid family leave laws and 23-24 more in the pipeline, the U.S. is experiencing a significant shift towards paid parental leave. Companies need to prepare for this changing landscape, even in the absence of federal legislation.
- Bipartisan Support: Paid family leave has overwhelming support across political lines, with over 80% approval from voters of all affiliations. This broad consensus suggests that the expansion of paid family leave is likely to continue regardless of election outcomes.
- Generational Expectations: Younger generations, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, are entering parenthood with different expectations about work-life balance and benefits. Employers must adapt their parental leave policies, programming, and practice to meet these evolving needs to attract and retain top talent and improve employee experience.
- Don’t Only Focus on Policy: Effective parental leave programs need to take a comprehensive approach that goes beyond just offering time off; they need to encompass a three-phase approach (pre-leave, during leave, and return-to-work) and address both policy and practice. Employers should focus on creating holistic programs that support employees throughout the ~year or more of their parental leave journey.
As we approach the 2024 presidential election, it’s crucial to understand that the momentum behind paid family leave extends far beyond individual candidates or party lines. This trend is reshaping the American workplace, driven by broad public support, changing societal norms, and a growing recognition of the importance of work-life balance.
However, staying competitive in this new landscape isn’t just about having a generous paid leave policy. While that’s certainly foundational, companies that truly want to lead in this area need to view parental leave as a strategic opportunity to enhance talent development, improve the employee experience, and foster a supportive workplace culture.
This holistic approach includes elements such as manager training, coaching programs, resource hubs for expecting and new parents, working-parent ERG’s, ongoing programming, and strategies to support employees before, during, and after their leave. By addressing all these aspects, companies can transform parental leave from simply a policy that has to be followed into a comprehensive culture that attracts top talent, boosts retention, and ultimately contributes to business success while making employees healthier and happier.
In this article, we’ll explore the current state of paid leave policies, discuss best practices for supporting employees through the parental leave process, and look ahead to the future of parental leave in the evolving workplace.
Paid Leave Policy & Politics
While federal paid leave is not yet the law of the land despite decades of effort by advocates, employers, and legislators, states are taking matters into their own hands. As of 2024, 13 states plus Washington D.C. have ratified paid family leave laws, covering approximately 23% of U.S. employees. Even more telling, an additional 23-24 states are actively working towards implementing similar policies. This patchwork of state laws creates truly burdensome and expensive complexity, especially for multi-state employers, but also signals a clear direction for the future of parental leave in America long term.
In the absence of federal legislation, the trend towards state-level action is likely to continue, putting pressure on both federal lawmakers and employers to address the issue more comprehensively. As more states implement paid leave programs, it creates a natural experiment that can inform best practices and potentially shape future federal policy.
Contrary to some perceptions, paid family leave is not a partisan issue. Recent polling of battleground states shows overwhelming bipartisan support, including:
- 96% of Democrats
- 82% of Independents
- 76% of Republicans
These numbers demonstrate that regardless of political affiliation, Americans recognize the importance of supporting working parents. This data highlights an unusually broad consensus in today’s political environment and suggests that paid family leave policies will continue to pass either at the state and/or federal level, regardless of which party holds power.
The bipartisan nature of this support also indicates that companies implementing robust parental leave policies are likely to find favor with employees and customers across the political spectrum. Twelve weeks of 100% paid leave for moms and dads is increasingly becoming an expectation rather than an exception.
As we look to November, both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are vocal proponents of paid family leave and are likely to pass federal legislation if elected. Donald Trump and JD Vance have also shown support for paid family leave and, though likely to advocate for a policy with less time than Harris and Walz, may also respond to constituents by passing some form of paid family leave.
The Future of Work: Generational Expectations
By 2025, it’s estimated that 75% percent of the global workforce will be made up of Millennials.The generation behind them, Gen Z (currently aged 12 to 28) has also started to enter the workforce and begin growing their families or, at minimum, are making plans to. Unlike previous generations, who could only hope and pray that they worked for an understanding manager (what clients call “winning the boss lottery”) this generation isn’t taking chances. We regularly hear from parents we coach that they have stayed at their workplace or in their State because of the parental leave policy, or conversely, that they have quit or moved to another State because of the lack of one. Companies that fail to offer competitive parental leave benefits will find themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent from these generations.
It’s not just about a policy existing either. They expect their employer to make leave easy on them by providing professional and personal support, including a clear administrative process and resources for off-boarding and on-boarding. One client of ours said directly, “I don’t care how [the employer] does it. That’s not my job to figure out, it’s theirs.” Her opinion is representative and illustrates that these generations don’t agree with the default in our country that leave is something for parents (usually moms) to figure out on their own with cobbled together vacations and sick days. In fact, in a survey of workplace benefits preferences, 66% of Gen Z respondents ranked flexible parental leave as one of their top desired HR benefits. They are not interested in wasting their time with an employer who hasn’t figured this out. Which means workplaces who do have an opportunity to lead.
In addition to Millennials (Gen Y) and Gen Z entering the workforce and parenthood with different expectations about work-life balance and workplace benefits than previous generations, they also have different ideas about mental health, workplace wellness, and the importance of family time. Any workplace parental leave programming and practice should include socio-emotional considerations, perinatal mental health education and support, and strong breastfeeding and pumping resources and locations.
As these generations move higher up into management and leadership positions, they’re likely to advocate for and implement more family-friendly policies, further accelerating the trend towards comprehensive parental leave policy, programming, and practice.
75% of respondents agree that they are more likely to remain with their employer because of the leave policy.
Implementing Effective Programming & Practice
Again, for employers looking to stay ahead of the curve, it’s not just about having a paid leave policy – it’s about creating a comprehensive program and culture of employee supportive practice that considers and resources the entire three phase parental leave journey for all parents (not just birthing moms). Here’s some tips from what we know works with our clients:
- Recognize Parental Leave is a Three Phase Transition
- Preparing for Leave: Give employees training and templates to prepare for their time away and transfer of responsibilities. Include manager, cover team, impacted stakeholders, and expecting parent in planning conversations. Create documented 3 phase leave plans for all to reference throughout.
- During Leave: Follow the expecting parent’s wishes for communication (or lack thereof) and develop a clear Keep In Touch process that maintains appropriate (and legal) contact and support during leave.
- Returning from Leave: Make it culturally acceptable to pivot to contingency plans as circumstances require. Provide resources, empathy, and flexibility to respond in the moment and ease the return to work. Ask, don’t assume, what level of engagement your new parent wants on those early days back.
- Address the Human at the Core
- Focus on the emotional and practical needs of new parents, recognizing that becoming a parent (and quickly a working-parent!) is a major work and life transition, with all the potential perinatal mental health challenges that go along with that.
- Provide support beyond just policy and logistics, such as access to benefits that can make this time easier at home and personally. This could be something like meal services, childcare assistance, breastmilk shipping when traveling, counseling services, certified RETAIN Parental Leave Coaching, parent support groups, flexible return options, or more (reach out and we’ll help you decide what is right for your organization).
We are proud to have created the first workplace perinatal mental health screen and that all of our certified RETAIN Coaches have additional training in perinatal mental health support. We do screening in each coaching session to ensure any issues are caught and resourced quickly and appropriately.
- Combine Policy and Practice
- Offer competitive leave benefits (both time and financial support) that align with or exceed state or FMLA requirements.
- Implement supportive practices to ensure successful utilization of leave benefits, such as manager training that teaches how to support employees taking leave. (Do supervisors at your company feel unprepared to support team members expecting a leave? Find out about our self-led manager training and certificate by contacting us)
- Use Data to Drive Decisions
- Collect and analyze relevant data about your parental leave program, including utilization rates, return-to-work retention, and employee satisfaction.
- Use insights to continually improve and adapt your approach, making data-driven decisions about program enhancements. (Our Research and Assessment team is here to help.)
- Take a Developmental Approach
- We’ve seen that in many organizations parental leave is their most overlooked developmental opportunity. The RETAIN Coaching method was created to solve this gap. RETAIN Coaching harnesses self-awarenance and growth by using the first evidence-based self-assessment tool for this timeframe, the Parental Leave Transition Assessment™ (PLTA). The PLTA measures a parent’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities through their parental leave and results in a personalized 22 page report which includes their unique Risk Score so organizations can know where to target additional resources. The PLTA Report is used with their coach to identify developmental needs and guide their leave and return planning and coaching sessions to address those. There is a corresponding manager version for shared language and procedure development.
- Consider evidence-based training and coaching programs for both new parents and their managers to ensure education sticks and a smooth transition culture before, during, and after leave exists for all stakeholders. CPLL has certified over 100 coaches in the RETAIN Parental Leave Coaching method because we have seen that parental leave is one of the highest impact moments in the career lifecycle and offers a golden opportunity for managers to put new skills and frameworks into practice. When managed well, a parental leave transition can strengthen the whole team and empower the new parent to return better prepared and with more skills that will take them far in their future career trajectory.
Conclusion
it is undeniable that the landscape of parental leave in the U.S. is changing – both around policy and employee expectations. Strategic, forward-thinking companies are recognizing that robust and thoughtful parental leave policy, programs, and practice are not just nice-to-have benefits, but a critical tool for attracting and retaining top talent, developing manager and employee skills, improving the employee experience, advancing health and wellness, and mitigating risk.
There is a short window for companies to invest in these benefits before it will be a requirement. By leaning into this truth and leading in this space forward thinking organizations are set to gain a competitive advantage by embracing parental leave as a cornerstone of their talent and development strategy, learning from their early entry, and positioning their workplace at the forefront of the evolving parental leave landscape.
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Sources
Research is the bedrock of our mission and actions at the Center for Parental Leave Leadership. We wholeheartedly believe that informed decisions lead to transformative outcomes, and that’s why we place such a high value on research and data. Our commitment is unwavering: to rely exclusively on credible and respected sources in every facet of our work. Below are the trusted sources referenced in this article, reinforcing our dedication to evidence-based insights and practices.
- Paid Leave for All and Lake Research Partners survey (2023). LRP. https://irp.cdn-website.com/167e816a/files/uploaded/Lake.Paid.Leave.for.All.Poll.Press%20Memo.pdf
- The New Dad Research Series Expanded Pay Parental Leave Measuring the Impact of Leave on Work & Family (2019). Boston College Center for Work & Family. https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/cwf/research/publications/researchreports/Expanded%20Paid%20Parental%20Leave-%20Study%20Findings%20FINAL%2010-31-19.pdfhttps://justcapital.com/news/morgan-stanley-paid-parental-leave-policy-care-benefits-2023/
- Ramsey, M. (2023). Emerging Trends in Paid Leave Offer New Support For Employees. SHRM https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/all-things-work/expanding-view-paid-leavehttps://worldatwork.org/resources/publications/journal/journal-of-total-rewards-q4-2021
- Wong, B. (2024). Workplace Benefit Trends by Generation in 2024. Forbes Advisor https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/workplace-benefit-trends-by-generation/https://aaafoundation.org/acute-sleep-deprivation-risk-motor-vehicle-crash-involvement/
- Millennials in the Workplace Statistics: Generational Disparities in 2024 (2024). TeamStage. https://teamstage.io/millennials-in-the-workplace-statistics/
- Robinson, B. (2024). Three Reasons for the Rise of Paternal Leave in the 2024 Workplace. Forbes. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/Documents/Retaining-Talent.pdf
About the Center for Parental Leave Leadership
Navigating the journey of parenthood while balancing a career has its share of beautiful moments and inevitable challenges. At the Center for Parental Leave Leadership, we’ve walked this path alongside countless families, and we understand the nuances, joys, and anxieties it brings. Rooted in 35 years of dedicated research, our RETAIN Parental Leave Coaching™ method is more than just a framework—it’s a labor of love.
We’re here to support, guide, and empower employers, managers, and parents to turn the transition of parental leave into a shared journey of growth, empathy, and connection. Because everyone deserves to experience this profound life transition with support, clarity, and grace. Click here to learn more about what we do and set up a free informational call. Let’s dive deeper and chat about how we can help you.
