• Data was sourced from each university’s parental leave policy, which you can find  in the Raw Data section. We are looking at parental leave policies for graduate students, staff and faculty at top R1 research universities in America, based on the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report. Parental leave is a complex area of public policy and continually evolving so if your university parental leave policy has been recently updated, feel free to let us know! 

Individuals are entitled to medical leave for the period of time during which they are physically unable to work due to pregnancy, childbirth, recovery and related medical conditions. This, generally, lasts for six to eight weeks.

• Parental leave is a benefit that many universities offer to faculty, staff and graduate students. A parental leave policy may include leave for an employee to take care of a newborn child, recently adopted child, foster child, or a child otherwise needing parental care.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Pregnancy discrimination involves treating an individual – an applicant or employee – unfavorably in any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoffs, training, fringe benefits (such as leave and health insurance), and any other terms or conditions of employment. The passage of the PDA was a major factor in increasing the labor force participation and earnings of new mothers in that it required employers to provide paid sick leave, health insurance, and  fringe benefits.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. Typically, FMLA does not extend to graduate student workers or nine month faculty unless they have a baby during contracted teaching periods.

Many employees are eligible for short-term disability insurance (STD), which pays benefits for short periods of time after an elimination period. STD policies vary, ranging between a 50% wage replacement to a full wage replacement for 6 to 8 weeks in length, depending on delivery. Many programs require individuals to have worked at the university for at least 1,250 hours or 12 months.

Universities in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington have Paid Family Leave (PFL) policies that allow for partial-wage replacement for new parents to bond with their newborn or newly placed adopted or foster child. Most of this funding is paid through taxes collected from the employee, employer, or both, and  typically collected and remitted to the state by the employer.

Our data reflects paid parental leave provided by universities through either a policy or program, as opposed to partial-paid short-term disability programs supplemented by employees or Paid Family Leave (PFL) offered by states. For example, employees at the University of Syracuse are eligible for the New York Paid Family Leave (NYPFL) program which covers 67% of their average weekly pay, up to a maximum of 67% of the NY statewide average weekly wage (which is currently $1,594.57). While statewide paid parental leave policies are certainly impactful, we list the amount of weeks staff and faculty are compensated by the University of Syracuse during their parental leave as zero, as Syracuse does not have its own paid parental leave policy and, instead, relies on NYPFL to compensate employees while they are on parental leave.

Rigorous studies show the benefits of paid parental leave for the mother, including a reduction in maternal stress, increase in breastfeeding which has far-reaching benefits for a mother and child and decreased maternal depressive symptoms and intimate partner violence during the first postpartum year. The length of maternity leave has been associated with better outcomes for infants along the dimensions of health and cognitive development, including significant decrease in outpatient malnutrition and respiratory diagnoses, improved BMI, blood pressure and mental health as well as improved mother-child interactions.