About the Study
In 2023, the Women’s Bureau funded the Urban Institute to conduct the project Understanding Equity in Paid Leave through Microsimulation Analysis. Through a literature review, data scan, and data analysis, this project aims to explore the distributional outcomes and impact of certain state and federal policies on paid leave access and usage, including research identifying who is least likely to have gained access to paid leave through various state and federal policy interventions.
This project will utilize the Worker Paid Leave Usage Simulation (Worker PLUS) model, which employs public microdata from the Department of Labor’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Survey to train simulation models for individual-level needs and behaviors. The Urban Institute’s Analysis of Transfers, Taxes, and Income Security (ATTIS) microsimulation model will provide insights on how a public paid family and medical leave benefit might impact employment and incomes as well as how the policy would interact with other income support programs such as TANF, EITC, and SNAP.
This project seeks to provide research and technical assistance to states or local jurisdictions considering paid leave programs, and to answer new questions about policy impacts, costs, and benefits of paid leave policies. Findings will inform paid leave policy and further the Women’s Bureau strategic goals and priorities.