Source: LA Times
Only twelve percent of the low-income families who make less than $20,000 took parental leave in 2014, while 41% of families with incomes from $50,000 to $80,000 were able to take advantage of the perk.
According to the 2014 parental leave count for California, parental leave is a perk that is rarely enjoyed by low-income families, who often cannot make ends meet with the amount they are paid. The benefit cannot be equally enjoyed across families of all levels of income, and according to the report only benefits higher-income families who can afford to live off of paid parental leave, and who often are paid much more than the state law requires, by big companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix.
Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill to increase the amount paid to parents who use parental leave, will go into effect in 2018.
The increase in pay will allow for low-income families to benefit from the perk, and will encourage parents across the state to take advantage of the heavily underutilized perk; a report from the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Research suggests that less than 2% of all workers in California use parental leave because funds are insufficient and because parents are not protected against losing their job if they have been with a company for less than a year.
Read full story at: LA Times