The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave. However, studies find either small or insignificant effects of the legislation on employment, work, leave-taking, and wages. Perhaps employees are unable to use the leave because it is unpaid or they do...

Using data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY-97), we examine the effects of California's paid family leave program (CA-PFL) on mothers' and fathers' use of leave during the period surrounding child birth, and on the timing of mothers' return to work, the...