A third of parents leave their job after leave

Roughly a third of U.S. parents are no longer in the same job six months after their parental leave ends, according to an analysis by Deel economist Lauren Thomas that HR Dive reported. The share was 34% for fathers and 33% for mothers. This article looks at what that means for your pay, and at the questions worth asking before a leave starts rather than after it ends.

Что выяснило исследование

Deel is a payroll and HR platform, and its economist Lauren Thomas looked at nearly 5,000 white-collar workers across 13 countries. The headline number for the U.S. is simple: six months after leave ended, 34% of fathers and 33% of mothers had moved on from the job they held before. In other words, mothers and fathers in the U.S. left at almost the same rate.

The picture outside the U.S. was different. Across all the countries in the study, close to a quarter of fathers had left by the six-month mark, while the share for mothers was 30%. So in the wider group, mothers were more likely than fathers to leave. In the U.S., the two numbers sat close together.

The study also measured how long parents stayed out. The median U.S. father was out for 5.6 weeks. A median is the middle value: half took more, half took less. That was longer than what French, Italian or British fathers took, even though, as HR Dive noted, paid paternity leave is required by law in France, Italy and the U.K.

Fathers everywhere took less leave than mothers. In the U.S., the difference was just under four weeks. Thomas also found that U.S. mothers take less leave than mothers in the other countries studied. On the U.S. pattern, Thomas said "white-collar fathers have filled in some of the gap".

Why a job change after leave touches your paycheck

The study does not say why each parent left, and it does not say whether they moved to a better-paid job, a part-time role or out of work for a while. Those paths have very different effects on take-home pay, so it helps to think them through before your leave, not in the tired weeks after a baby arrives.

If you switch employers, your pay is only one part of the change. A new job can mean a new health plan, a new waiting period before some benefits begin, and a fresh start on any vesting schedule for retirement matching. Your paid time off balance usually does not travel with you. Comparing offers on total value, not only the hourly rate or salary, gives you a truer picture.

If you cut hours or step back, the change shows up on every pay stub. Fewer hours can also change what you pay for benefits, and some benefits have an hours threshold. A smaller check is sometimes the right trade for a family, but it is worth seeing the real number on paper before you commit.

If you stay, the leave itself still affects your pay. Leave can be fully paid, partly paid or unpaid, and many plans mix these. Knowing which weeks pay what lets you plan a budget for the months when the check is smaller.

Flexibility is the lever people keep mentioning

HR Dive pointed to research on what helps keep parents at work. A peer-reviewed study published earlier this year in the journal Administrative Sciences put a flexible schedule at the top of the list of employer policies deciding whether mothers stay in full-time work after a birth or adoption.

That matters for pay because flexibility is often the difference between keeping a full-time role and stepping down to fewer hours. Before you return, it is reasonable to ask what flexibility your employer offers, whether it is written policy or a manager's informal choice, and whether it is the same for every team.

Caregiving pressure does not stop with babies. Resume consultancy Zety, in a report published in July, found that among Generation X workers, nearly a quarter put the equivalent of two full workdays into caregiving each week. More than half said it left them stressed and burned out, and 3 in 10 said their employer gave little or no support. Parents of young children and adults caring for older relatives often face the same question: can this job bend enough to keep?

Вопросы о вашей собственной зарплате

Three checks cover most of it: the paid portion of your leave, whether your role is held for you during the absence, and how much flexibility is on offer once you are back. Here they are as questions you can bring to HR or your manager.

• How many weeks of my leave are paid, at what share of my normal pay, and which weeks are unpaid?
• Is my job, or an equal job, held for me while I am out, and is that written in policy?
• Do my health coverage and other benefits continue during leave, and does my share of the cost change?
• What schedule flexibility is available when I come back, and who has to approve it?

Write the answers down and keep them with your pay stubs. If you later think about switching jobs, you will have a clear baseline to compare an offer against, instead of a vague memory of what your old plan included.

За чем следить дальше

The Deel study covers white-collar workers, so it may not reflect hourly or shift jobs, where leave rules and scheduling can look very different. If you work hourly, the same questions still apply, and tracking your hours and pay closely around a leave is even more useful.

Watch your own employer's benefits materials, especially during open enrollment, for any change to paid leave or flexible work policy. Those details rarely make headlines, but they shape whether a new parent can stay in a job without taking a pay cut. If you are weighing a move after leave, line up the full value of each option, not just the number on the offer letter.

Написано с помощью ИИ на основе материалов, перечисленных в разделе «Источники». Цифры, цитаты и источники автоматически проверяются перед публикацией.

Эта статья носит общий образовательный характер и не является персональной финансовой консультацией. Цифры в примерах рассчитаны исходя из указанных рядом допущений и не являются прогнозами.