Are State Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs a Safety Net for Working Single Mothers?

Heather D. Hill; Marci Ybarra; Julia Goodman; Elizabeth Pelletier

doi:10.7758/RSF.2026.12.1.06

Article Information

vol. 12 no. 1 146-171

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2026.12.1.06

Published By

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

Print ISSN

2377-8253

Online ISSN

2377-8261

History

Published online May 13, 2026.

© 2026 Russell Sage Foundation. Hill, Heather D., Marci Ybarra, Julia Goodman, and Elizabeth Pelletier. 2026. “Are State Paid Family and Medical Leave Programs a Safety Net for Working Single Mothers?” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 12(1): 146–71. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2026.12.1.06. The authors thank Molly Weston Williamson at the Center for American Progress for her review and input on our understanding of state policy rules. Also, the article benefited greatly from the input of the editors, the issue authors, and other participants at the conference. Direct correspondence to: Heather D. Hill, at hdhill{at}uw.edu, Box 353055, Seattle, WA 98195, United States. Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Author Information

Heather D. Hill^a,
Marci Ybarra^b,
Julia Goodman^c and
Elizabeth Pelletier^d

^aProfessor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington, Seattle, United States
^bProfessor and the director at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States
^cAssociate professor at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at the Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, United States
^dPhD student at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington, Seattle, United States