Paid Family Leave Helps Prevent Infant Maltreatment

Infant maltreatment rates in four states with paid family leave (PFL) were lower than in 36 states without PFL. PFL refers to compensated time off work for employees engaged in approved caregiving needs, such as for a newborn or a newly adopted child. PFL is intended to support household economic stability. An analysis of the effects of PFL found that infant maltreatment rates in the PFL states were lower by a factor of 0.979 for each year after the policy was implemented compared to the states without PFL policies. The differences in infant maltreatment rates were large enough to . . .