Racial/ethnic and gender inequities in the sufficiency of paid leave during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from the service sector.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Access to paid family and medical leave (PFML), including leave to care for a seriously ill loved one or recover from one's own serious illness, conveys health and economic benefits for workers and their families. However, without a national PFML policy, access to paid leave remains limited and unequal. Previous work documenting inequitable access by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity primarily focuses on parental leave, measures theoretical access to paid leave rather than actual leave uptake, and lacks an accounting for why workers of color and women may have less access to PFML. We extend this literature by looking at leave-taking for medical needs or caregiving among a high-risk population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We draw on data from 2595 se

SUBMITTER: Goodman JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10684272 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature