Paid Leave, Welfare, and Material Hardship After a Birth
| Date | 01 February 2019 |
| Author | Marci Ybarra,Yoonsook Ha,Alexandra Stanczyk |
| Published date | 01 February 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12350 |
M Y University of Chicago
A S Urban Institute
Y H Boston University
Paid Leave, Welfare, and Material Hardship
After a Birth
Objective: To examine the relationships
between state-sponsored paid leave, Tempo-
rary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
generosity and participation, and material
hardship among low-income single women
following a birth.
Background: Past research has examined
the relationship between public assistance
and paid leave after a birth, nding reduc-
tions in program enrollment. This research has
not accounted for variation in program ben-
ets across states and has largely overlooked
implications for family well-being.
Method: We us e a sa mp le ( N=1,174) of
low-income single women who gave birth
between 1997 and 2001 from the Survey of
Income and Public Program Participation and
include measures of TANF generosity across
states and over time that were constructed
from the Welfare Rules database. A series of
multivariate probit regression models are used
to estimate the relationship between TANF
generosity, paid leave availability, welfare
participation, and material hardship while con-
trolling for relevant individual and state-level
characteristics.
Social Service Administration, 969 E. 60th Street
W10, University of Chicago. Chicago, IL 60637
(mybarra@uchicago.edu).
Key Words: Material hardship, paid leave, TANF.
Results: Paid leave was associated with less
TANF participation, but these reduction are
related to the program’s generosity. Paid leave,
states’ welfare work exemptions for mothers
of infants, and TANF earnings eligibility limits
were associated with a lower likelihood of expe-
riencing some forms of material hardship.
Conclusion: Some forms of paid leave
and TANF program generosity are related
to reductions in TANF participation and mate-
rial hardship after a birth for low-income single
women.
Implications: This study demonstrates that
researchers should account for variation
in TANF programs when considering changes
in program enrollment associated with paid
leave. Results suggest paid leave may help
alleviate some forms of economic stress after
a birth, which has implications for maternal,
infant, and family well-being.
In the United States, access to state-sponsored
paid leave to support time off from work around
a birth (hereafter, PL) has been associated
with improvements in child health (Stearns,
2015), increases in mothers’ job continuity,
and postbirth labor force attachment (Baum &
Ruhm, 2016; Rossin-Slater, Ruhm, & Wald-
fogel, 2013), and reductions in means-tested
assistance around a birth (Houser & Vartanian,
2012). Although the role of PL in supporting all
families is important, there is growing interest in
Family Relations 68 (February 2019): 85–103 85
DOI:10.1111/fare.12350
86 Family Relations
understanding its effectiveness for attenuating
economic deprivation among the most vulnera-
ble families—single, low-income women with
infants (hereafter, low-income single mothers;
Stanczyk, 2016; Ybarra, 2013). These concerns
stem from mounting evidence of the long-term
consequences of early deprivation for chil-
dren’s development (Heckman, 2006); mother
and infant health (Staehelin, Bertea, & Stutz,
2007); and disparities in employer-provided PL
(Phillips, 2004), work (Berger & Waldfogel,
2004), economic stability (Stanczyk, 2016),
and PL use (Applebaum & Milkman, 2011;
Laughlin, 2011) between low-income single
mothers and more advantaged families.
In addition to PL, the Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) program also pro-
vides nancial support to low-income single
mothers around a birth (Hill, 2012; Ybarra,
2013). Researchers, advocates, and policymak-
ers often cite PL as preferable to TANF for
supporting low-income single mothers around
a birth, in part because substitutions of PL
for TANF may reduce costs to states (Dube
& Kaplan, 2002; Houser & Vartanian, 2012).
However, recent research suggests that PL
might provide fewer resources to these fami-
lies than TANF (Ybarra, 2013), indicating the
need for further investigation into the rela-
tionships among PL, TANF, and the material
well-being of low-income single mothers. The
few existing studies in this area have overlooked
two critical issues: (a) accounting for TANF
generosity in low-income single mothers’ post-
birth TANF participation given the substantial
variation in benet levels and other program
rules across states (De Jong, Graefe, Irving, &
Pierre, 2006) and the likely correlation between
PL availability and TANF generosity; and (b)
the relationships between state programs (PL
and TANF) and low-income single mothers’
experiences of material hardship following a
birth.
We address these limitations by examining
postbirth TANF participation and risk of mate-
rial hardship among low-income single mothers
while accounting for a diverse set of individual
and state-level characteristics, including TANF
generosity and PL availability across states and
over time. To our knowledge, this is the rst
study to examine the relationships among states’
support of low-income mothers around birth
(i.e., TANF generosity and PL policies), wel-
fare use, and material hardship following a birth.
Material hardship is important because income
metrics do not provide a complete picture of
deprivation (Mayer & Jencks, 1989). To this
end, we employ three commonly used indi-
cators of material hardship—difculty paying
(a) essential expenses, (b) housing costs, and
(c) utilities—in the year after a birth. Data
come from the nationally representative Survey
of Income and Program Participation (SIPP),
which we use to construct a sample of births to
low-income single mothers, who are likely to be
eligible for TANF, from 1997 to 2011 as well as
information on mothers’ postbirth material hard-
ship and TANFuse. To examine the relationships
between PL availability, TANF generosity, and
these outcomes, we estimate a series of multi-
variate probit models. Study ndings are espe-
cially relevant in light of growing attention to PL
policy in the United States, the high employment
rates of low-income single mothers with very
young children (Blank, Schulman, & Frohlich,
2014), and recent evidence that low-income sin-
gle mothers tend to experience substantial eco-
nomic declines around a birth (Stanczyk, 2016).
B L R
Paid Leave Provisions in the United States
The United States does not currently have
a federal PL program, but two states have
state-sponsored PL programs—Paid Family
Leave (PFL) and Temporary Disability Insur-
ance (TDI)—that offer wage replacement during
time away from work for a sanctioned reason.
The impetus for PFL programs in the United
States were the unpaid provisions of the Family
and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). The
FMLA provides unpaid job protection to qual-
ifying individuals. However, due to eligibility
restrictions by rm size, employee tenure,
and work hours, FMLA coverage is limited
and uneven. Recent estimates suggest that just
under 60% of employees in the United States
are covered by the FMLA (Klerman, Daley, &
Pozniak, 2013), and coverage is largely con-
centrated among professional workers (Phillips,
2004).
PFL provides wage replacement during time
off from work to care for or bond with a fam-
ily member, including a newborn. The bene-
t is funded via a payroll tax and, with the
exception of the Rhode Island program, does
not offer job protection. Currently, three states
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