The Human Capital Case for Paid Family Leave

“Quite simply, our investments in human capital have failed to keep up with our capital investments elsewhere.”

The United States is home to the most innovative technology companies, the largest economy, and the leading universities. Our advancements in artificial intelligence, space exploration, and biotechnology are shaping the future. Yet, when it comes to supporting workers and families, we lag behind. If you have a baby, job protection is a coin flip. Access to paid leave to care for a sick loved one is even rarer. The U.S. is the only OECD country—and one of just six in the world—without a national paid parental leave policy.

Quite simply, our investments in human capital have failed to keep up with our capital investments elsewhere. Addressing this failure is the purpose of BPC’s new Commission on the American Workforce – a bold initiative to develop a national, bipartisan strategy to strengthen the workforce, expand economic opportunity, and ensure the United States remains competitive.

Here we will focus on one aspect of our Human Capital challenge: caregiving.

The Cost of Underinvestment

The costs of our underinvestment in caregiving are numerous and well-known. America is experiencing declining fertility rates, worsening maternal health outcomes, and businesses are struggling to attract and retain workers in part due to inadequate access to paid leave and other critical benefits for family members.

BPC’s 2023 polling, conducted in partnership with Artemis Strategy Group, found that caregiving responsibilities were the leading reason prime-age adults were out of the labor force (neither working nor looking for work). 37% of respondents cited caregiving as their main reason for not working—33% for children and 3% for other family members. Notably, respondents ranked paid family and medical leave about as important as compensation when deciding whether to start or return to work.

According to Pew Research data, mothers without access to paid leave from their employers are likely to cut their leave short, go on public assistance, take on debt, or fall behind on bills, creating a spiral of economic challenges. The Center for American Progress estimates that workers and their families miss out on $22.5 billion in wages each year as a lack of paid leave forces workers to take unpaid time off, reduce hours, or leave their job.

Infants whose parents have access to paid parental leave exhibit higher brain activity and better health outcomes, including higher vaccination rates, breastfeeding rates, and reduced neonatal fatality rates.

At the same time, BPC Action polling, in partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Morning Consult, finds that many caregivers suffer income or job loss to care for ill or aging family members—a challenge that will only intensify as the population ages.

Mind the Gap

Fortunately, there have been many improvements in paid leave coverage in recent years, both public and private. The percentage of private industry workers with access to paid family leave through their employer has more than doubled, from 13% in 2017 to 27% in 2023. In the same period, the increase among large companies (500 or more employees) was from 23% to 41%.

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia now offer a public paid family leave program.  During the first Trump Administration, paid parental leave was extended to the federal workforce. Private sector companies providing paid leave to their employees can access federal tax credits to help offset the costs.

All of this is worth noting and celebrating. But significant gaps in coverage remain. Even now, paid family leave through private sector employers is still only available to one in four workers.  Job protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is not guaranteed for nearly half of the workforce, meaning that if a parent leaves work to care for a newborn in the early days after birth, they could be legally fired.

The lack of widespread access to paid family leave and job protection worsens economic inequality, hitting hardest those who can least afford to take unpaid leave. Low-wage workers, small business employees, and part-time workers are disproportionately affected. According to the Department of Labor, 95% of the lowest-wage workers—who are predominantly women and people of color—have no access to paid family leave.

Employees working for companies with more than 500 workers (37%) are nearly twice as likely to receive paid family leave benefits as those working for companies with fewer than 50 workers (19%), while employees earning in the top income quartile (41%) are more than twice as likely to have paid family leave than workers in the lowest quartile (14%).

Bipartisan Momentum for Reform

There is clear bipartisan support for expanding paid family leave. A 2024 national poll from BPC Action, in partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Morning Consult, found 82% of voters support a federal paid family and medical leave program, including 90% of Democrats and 76% of Republicans. Similarly, a 2025 survey by Echelon Insights found that 83% of Americans support Congress taking action to provide paid family leave to all workers. The leading reason for expanding leave was to care for a family member with a serious health condition (79%), followed closely by caring for a newborn (75%).

Importantly, the BPC Action survey found the vast majority of voters (79%) believe it is important for policymakers to work on bipartisan solutions to make caregiving easier and more affordable for families, including 87% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans. Clearly the importance of finding a solution rises above our political divides.

The 118th Congress made significant bipartisan progress in developing solutions that support working families and strengthen our economy. The new Congress has an opportunity to build on this momentum and enact lasting change.

Our first blog in this series highlighted the urgent human capital challenge facing the United States. The Commission on the American Workforce was launched to tackle these challenges head-on, recognizing that workforce strength depends on policies that support Americans at every stage of life. Investing in caregiving is a vital piece of this effort. With bold, bipartisan solutions to expand paid family leave, we can strengthen our economy, support businesses, and ensure every working family has the stability they need to thrive.