Click here to download the executive summary of NCCADV's 2022 Health Impact Assessment on Paid Leave.
Click here to download the full report on NCCADV's 2022 Health Impact Assessment on Paid Leave.
The benefits of paid parental leave are well-documented. In comparison to workers without access, workers with access to paid parental leave report:
(1) better maternal health outcomes
(2) greater emotional investment and engagement in caregiving among fathers
(3) lower rates of infant mortality and post-neonatal mortality
(4) lower rates of pediatric abusive head trauma
(5) increased length of breastfeeding and
(6) increased well-baby care and vaccinations
Paid leave also increases worker retention by increasing the likelihood that a new parent will return to work. It also improves employee morale and family incomes.
Victims and survivors of IPV are often overlooked as a population in need of paid leave. Because intimate partner violence often impacts the work life of victims and survivors, resulting in missed work, lost wages, and diminished performance as a result of chronic stress and allostatic load, victims and survivors are likely to benefit from access to employer-based paid leave as well.
Research suggests that paid leave benefits can alleviate work-family conflict which in turn reduces stress within the family – a benefit that may carry over to both partners in two-partner households.
Similarly, greater economic stability is likely to promote positive health and wellbeing outcomes for both partners in a two-partner household, but also provides victims and survivors with economic resources needed for leaving an abusive relationship.
Understanding how to mitigate the negative health impacts of intimate partner violence by economically strengthening employer-based supports for victims and survivors is also important.
In addition to providing financial support and job protection during times of acute stress and violence, strengthening employer-based supports presents an important opportunity to disrupt the negative effects of trauma and childhood adversity (e.g., child maltreatment, witnessing IPV, and family dysfunction) and their prospective health impacts.
Although there is little empirical evidence documenting the effects of employer-based paid leave benefits for victims and survivors of intimate partner violence, there is good reason to trust that employer-based paid leave policies will produce beneficial health outcomes for victims/survivors and perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Accordingly, we maintain that paid leave protections are an important protective mechanism for adults and children affected by intimate partner violence.