Parental Leave

The term parental leave refers to gender-neutral, job-protected leave from employment that is available to both mothers and fathers. As more households are shared by dual-earner couples, the need for adequate parental leave has become increasingly important for the health and well-being of both parents and children. Having access to adequate parental leave is also an important step in facilitating women's work outside the home. This entry focuses on explaining the existing variations in parental leave and briefly describing U.S. leave policies. Some of the variations in parental leave include the following: whether it is seen as an individual or family right, whether it is paid or unpaid, and whether it supplements or replaces maternity and paternity leave.

There are several differences in how parental leave has been conceived of around the world. Some parental leaves are defined as nontransferable individual rights, whereby each parent is entitled to a certain set amount of leave. In other countries, parental leave is defined as a family right, and parents can divide up the total leave time however they choose. Furthermore, in some countries, parental leave supplements maternity leave (leave just for mothers) and/or paternity leave (leave just for fathers), while in other countries, it replaces one or both of these.

How parental leave is defined has a large effect on the number of mothers and fathers who take parental leave—this is known as the “take-up” rate. In situations where parental leave is seen as an individual right and the father needs to either use his share of parental leave or lose it, fathers are much more likely to utilize their parental leave (especially in those countries where parental leave is paid). When parental leave is seen wholly as a family's right, the take-up rates for fathers are much lower and mothers often use all the available parental leave. This is significant for people concerned with the current gender inequality in family caregiving.

The United States has only one type of family leave, which is regulated by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA requires certain employers to allow eligible workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for a newborn, newly adopted, or foster child. While this law has made it possible for more parents to stay home after the birth of a child, because the leave is unpaid many parents feel economic pressure to return to work before utilizing all of the available leave. This policy contrasts with those of many other countries that provide leave that is at least partly paid.