California Paid Family Leave Insurance
Berger Institute News Release on research report regarding caregivers and California Paid Family Leave. For the full report click here.
California is the first state in the nation to enact a paid family leave law. This new law allows employees who pay into the State Disability Insurance system to take up to six weeks of paid leave, at 55% pay, for medical leave to care for a seriously ill family member (parent, child, spouse or domestic partner), or for parental leave for a new child (birth, adoption, or foster care). Since the law goes into effect on July 1, 2004, its impact is not yet known. However, there has been considerable debate about its possible implications for businesses and families. Opponents believe that the new law will be very costly to business and is likely to be abused by employees who use it to take extra vacation time. Advocates believe that it will benefit families by helping employees address urgent family health needs without risking the loss of their jobs or their financial security.
Previous research indicates that when family members are seriously ill or injured, including children, they recover more quickly and leave the hospital more quickly when parents themselves care for them, in and out of the hospital. Long-term costs of health care and psychological costs to families are likely to be reduced by work organizations that support paid family medical leave (George & Hancock, 1993; Taylor & O'Connor, 1989).
The Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children is currently funded by The California Wellness Foundation to study the effects of the California Paid Family Leave Insurance Program. We are interested in how the new California Paid Family Leave Insurance Program impacts how social and family support helps sick people in their recovery. We would like to know:
- Whether work demands present a major barrier to providing family care.
- Whether Paid Family Leave will help to alleviate some of these demands by making it less costly to take family leave.
- The effect of paid family leave on the health outcomes of low income participants with high needs for home care and out-patient hospital care.
In addition, the Berger Institute will disseminate information about the availability of paid family leave to both English and non-English speaking populations and provide data about health outcomes to inform that debate about paid family leave.
The Berger Institute's first media release, reports that there is a need for paid leave however a lack of knowledge about the California Paid Family Insurance program.
