Survey of individuals’ barriers to accessing state paid family and medical leave
National
April 2026 - November 2026
Why This Matters for Families
Across the country, hundreds of thousands of individuals need to take time away from work to welcome a new child, recover from a serious medical condition, or care for a family member with a serious medical condition. In the twelve states, plus the District of Columbia, with an active state paid leave program, individuals who meet the eligibility criteria can receive paid benefits during that major life event, and, typically, get job protection that enables them to return to their employer after they take their leave. These state paid leave programs are relatively new. California was the first state to implement their paid family leave program in 2004, but most states have implemented their paid leave programs in more recent years.
Given the recency of these programs, there is limited research about individual’s experiences in and biggest barriers to accessing paid leave through these state programs, particularly during the application process. Some research demonstrates that individuals often do not know about their paid leave benefits available to them during a qualifying event, or do not think they are eligible for paid leave benefits.
Through the New Practice Lab’s past work in New Jersey and our other sprints in Minnesota and Maryland, we have learned about various barriers that individuals face when applying for state paid leave benefits, ranging from confusion over benefits, identity verification, and medical certification. However, we have limited quantitative understanding of which of these barriers are the biggest pain points for individuals across all of the states with paid leave programs.
Implementation Challenge
In order to improve delivery of paid leave in state programs, we have to understand the full scope and scale of the barriers that individuals experience in accessing and applying for paid leave benefits. In particular, we are interested in understanding the biggest barriers for low-income individuals and their families when accessing and applying for paid leave because they can least afford to miss a paycheck or lose a job when they experience a medical or caregiving event.
Our Approach
To build a more comprehensive view of individuals’ experiences with paid leave, the New Practice Lab designed a survey of individuals with qualifying events in the 12 states with paid leave programs.
Beginning with a literature review of existing research, we identified several categories of barriers that individuals experience in accessing PFML: knowledge barriers, employer-related barriers, policy design barriers, and administrative barriers. This information helped inform the survey design and questions.
Working with Qualtrics as our survey partner, our team designed a 55 question survey focused on individual’s experiences with understanding and applying to their state paid leave program (including if they received a request for information during their application), communicating to their leave with their employer, and the impact of waiting for a decision on their application.
The survey was fielded between July 22 and August 19, 2026 and reflects the experiences of 4,000+ individuals across the 12 states with paid leave programs – it’s the largest (and maybe only) survey of paid leave takers across the nation to date. The survey was completed online and was available in both English and Spanish.
Our core research questions include:
What are the most common barriers people/claimants face during the paid leave user journey and how are those correlated with application/benefit outcomes?
Which barriers are the most prevalent among different populations? (by income, leave type, gender, education, etc.)
What resources do people report to be most helpful when trying to access their state PFML program?
Using these insights, we will work with state administrators and other paid leave partners to propose implementation changes to paid leave programs that will have the greatest impact for individuals, especially low-income families. These insights will also help inform the implementation of new state paid leave programs and a possible national paid leave program.
What We Learned
Our team is analyzing results from the 4,000+ person survey. Findings will help us better understand which barriers are most common, who experiences them, and where there may be opportunities for state paid leave programs to improve access and benefit delivery.
Next Steps
The New Practice Lab will complete the analysis of the survey results and publish findings and accompanying public-use data files in Winter 2026. The findings will also inform conversations with state administrators and other paid leave partners about potential interventions to address the most significant barriers identified through the research.
