Impacts of State Paid Family Leave Policies for Older Workers with Spouses or Parents in Poor Health

Since 2004 six states plus Washington, DC have implemented laws that provide paid
leave benefits to workers caring for family members who have a disability or serious
medical condition. Focusing on the most established state programs—California and New
Jersey—this paper investigates whether paid family leave (PFL) policies facilitate greater
labor supply, caregiving, and improvements in health outcomes for those likely to provide
family care. Using our preferred estimation method, we find that women with a spouse in
poor health are 7.4 percentage points more likely to work while providing care after the
implementation of PFL compared to those not living in a PFL state. Similarly, women living
within 10 miles of a parent in poor health are more likely to work while providing care (5.6
percentage points) after PFL. The implementation of state PFL also leads to improvements
in mental health outcomes for these two groups of women. We fail to find strong evidence
that PFL affects labor and care decisions for women living more than 10 miles from a parent
in poor health. PFL also has less consistent effects on men.