ABSTRACT

Using a capability approach, this study assesses economic constraints under the current US national unpaid family and medical leave (FML) policy compared to a hypothetical national paid FML policy for all full-year workers. Existing literature documents gender and class differences in barriers to FML use, but there is limited research on racial/ethnic minority workers. Our results indicate that if FML policy changed from unpaid to paid leave, black workers would gain a greater percentage of family income back relative to white workers, due in part to their larger wage contributions to family income. However, moving to a paid FML policy has a lower likelihood of preventing short-term economic hardship for black and Hispanic workers, compared to white workers. Our findings are consistent with studies, of which there are few, that show that paid FML can decrease, but not eliminate, disparities in black and Hispanic working mothers’ capability to take up parental leave and use leave for longer durations. Therefore, further design modifications to FML policy are needed for paid leave to be fully protective of all workers who need to take leave without facing economic hardship.

摘要

本研究使用能力方法评估当前美国国家无薪家庭和病假 (FML) 政策下的经济限制，与针对所有全年工人的假设国家有薪 FML 政策进行比较。现有文献记录了 FML 使用障碍方面的性别和阶级差异，但对种族/少数民族工人的研究有限。我们的结果表明，如果 FML 政策从无薪休假变为带薪休假，与白人工人相比，黑人工人将获得更大比例的家庭收入，部分原因是他们对家庭收入的工资贡献更大。然而，与白人工人相比，转向有偿 FML 政策在防止黑人和西班牙裔工人短期经济困难方面的可能性较低。我们的发现与研究一致，其中很少，这表明带薪 FML 可以减少但不能消除黑人和西班牙裔工作母亲休育儿假和使用更长假期的能力的差异。因此，需要对 FML 政策进行进一步的设计修改，以使带薪休假能够充分保护所有需要休假而不面临经济困难的工人。