Researchers say outreach, employer supports and flexible design are key to making state paid-leave programs work

Researchers on The Paid Leave Podcast said state paid-leave programs will only reach their full promise if states invest in outreach, account for the employer’s central role in access, and design flexible rules that match how people actually need to take time off.

Host Nancy Barrow opened the episode by telling listeners that "if you're paying into this program, you have the right to utilize this program," and asked Oregon-based researchers how to close the awareness gap so eligible workers can use benefits.

Dr. Julia Goodman, an associate professor at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, said awareness is a persistent problem. "People don't even know the policy exists, or people don't understand that they're eligible," she said, noting outreach efforts that go beyond media — such as in-person tabling and partnerships with trusted community organizations — are essential to reach harder-to-reach populations.

Dr. David Rothwell, the Barbara E. Knudson Endowed Chair in Family Policy and an associate professor at Oregon State University, emphasized a design and implementation challenge unique to paid leave: "You have the employer as this intermediary, right, so that the worker's primary point of access is going to be through the employer." He argued that because employers often mediate information and the process, states must consider how to support employers (including supervisors and HR) so workers actually receive the benefits they paid into.

Both researchers urged stronger attention to language access and community-level outreach. Rothwell said states should ensure materials and assistance are available in major languages and that outreach strategies explicitly include workers who are less likely to receive information through employers.

Beyond outreach, Goodman said research and policy need to look beyond parental leave to other covered reasons that see low take-up. "Safe leave is not being taken up at rates that you would want," she said, and noted that Connecticut explicitly includes bone marrow transplants and organ donation among covered reasons for leave, an example of a program scope that may be unfamiliar to many workers.

The guests also discussed the equity rationale for state programs. Goodman described stark differences in access to employer-provided leave by income, education and job type, and Rothwell said state programs can reduce those disparities by providing more uniform coverage across employers.

On the research front, Rothwell described efforts in Oregon to build linked administrative datasets that connect birth records with employment and safety-net program participation to study interactions between paid leave and other public benefits. "We're trying to leverage that to create some insights that influence policy," he said, pointing to ongoing work that will take years to produce causal findings.

Goodman discussed studies at the employer level, including a supervisors-training trial designed to increase supportive responses when employees request leave. She said such organization-level interventions are an important bridge between policy passage and worker experience.

Both researchers offered practical guidance for policymakers: account for employer concerns and the business case for leave to reduce turnover, and design programs that allow intermittent or reduced schedules and broaden who counts as a family member or qualifying reason so people can actually use the time they are allotted.

The episode closed with Barrow directing listeners to ctpaidleave.org for information and applications and with the researchers urging continued study of how program design and outreach shape who benefits.

The interview appeared on The Paid Leave Podcast and featured examples from Oregon's implementation experience and references to Connecticut's program design.