By Contributor,Michelle Travis

Copyright forbes

Men are taking paternity leave at high rates in states with mandatory paid family leave laws, but gender gaps still remain in the use of paid leave programs.

In states with laws mandating paid parental leave, claims for leave to care for new children are filed by nearly the same number of fathers as mothers, according to a June 2025 report by the national advocacy organization Paid Leave for All. The data shows that the demand for paid parental leave crosses gender lines, highlighting the need for a uniform federal law.

The U.S. is one of the only developed countries that lacks a federal paid leave law for parents to bond with new children. And only 27% of private sector workers have access to paid family leave through their employers, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

An increasing number of states have stepped in to fill this gap with paid family leave laws. The 2025 report reveals the significant impact that states laws have had in narrowing the gender gap by increasing men’s use of paternity leave.

Men Taking Paternity Leave At High Rates In States With Paid Leave Laws

Nine states and the District of Columbia have mandatory paid family leave laws in effect. This includes California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington. An additional four states have paid leave laws that will take effect by 2026. Those states include Delaware, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota.

The 2025 report by Paid Leave for All analyzed men’s use of paternity leave in the District of Columbia and the nine states that have mandatory family leave laws in place. The study used data on employee applications filed under each paid leave program from the calendar or fiscal year 2023 or 2024.

MORE FOR YOU

Men accounted for more than four out of every ten leave applications to bond with a new child in eight of the states with mandatory paid leave laws.

In Washington, more men (55.3%) than women (44.7%) filed approved newborn bonding leave claims with the state in 2024. In Colorado, leave claims were split evenly between men and women. The percentage of parental leave claims filed by men was also high under state leave programs in Rhode Island (45%), California (44%), Connecticut (44%), Oregon (43%), Massachusetts (41%) and New York (41%).

“In other words, in most state paid leave programs, the number of dads taking or applying for paid leave to bond with a new child is nearing or surpassing the number of moms doing so,” according to the report, authored by Molly Weston Williamson. “Even in states with comparatively low rates of men taking bonding leave, a substantial proportion of those taking bonding leave are dads: men made up 35% of approved bonding claims in D.C. and 30% of approved bonding claims in New Jersey in the most recent annual data.”

While the 2025 report shows that an increasing number of men relative to women are applying for parental leave under state-mandated programs, additional data is needed to fully analyze gender parity. The data does not assess whether men are using less of their allotted leave time than women, or whether more men than women are foregoing paid leave for which they are eligible.

As the 2025 report explains, “in all states with paid leave programs, many parents of all genders do not take paid leave when they welcome a new child, whether because they are simply not aware the program exists or because it does not meet their needs.”

The increase in men’s relative use of state parental leave programs is still a significant achievement. In California, men’s applications for paternity leave have increased 384% since the state’s paid leave program began.

“Claims are going up from everybody, but what’s really driving that overall increase is this gigantic increase in claims from men,” said Williamson, in a July 9, 2025 interview with LAist.

Gender Gaps In Paid Family Leave Remain

Despite men’s increased use of paternity leave under state law programs, significant gender disparities remain, according to a February 2025 study by McKinsey & Co. and the nonprofit Moms First.

The study compared eligibility versus use data from 2022 in three states with mandatory paid leave programs: California, New Jersey and New York. The researchers also surveyed over 2,000 individuals in 2024 who were eligible for parental leave under their state program.

Overall, the study found a low usage rate of paid family leave among all eligible parents, but particularly among men.

Among those who were eligible to use state paid family leave in California, New Jersey and New York in 2022, only two out of five parents used any amount of paid leave. When surveyed, 60% of the parents who did not use state paid leave for which they were eligible said they were unaware that paid leave was available.

The study found that men are 25% more likely than women to be eligible for parental leave under the state programs, based on their labor force participation and employment status. But men are about 50% less likely than women to actually use their paid parental leave.

This means that even if men make up half of all claims for paid parental leave under a state program, a lower percentage of eligible men than women are using their available leave. Among the most common reasons that men gave for not using paid leave for which they were eligible was that they did not think taking leave was necessary because their partner would be doing so.

As a result, men account for the majority of unused state paid parental leave benefits. Across the three states in 2022, men did not use nearly 4 million weeks of available paid leave to bond with new children. Fathers in New York alone are foregoing as much as $1.6 billion annually in available paid leave under the state’s program.

Paid leave typically covers only a percentage of salary, however, so parents who use these benefits often incur a net financial loss during leave time. State paid leave programs typically provide between 60% and 85% of total wage replacement.

The 2025 McKinsey & Co. and Moms First study did not include data on parents who used an employer’s paid leave policy instead of paid leave through their state program. While many large companies are expanding paid leave benefits, over 70% of private sector workers nationwide still lack access to paid family leave through their employers.

Why Men Taking Paternity Leave Is Good For Business

Paternity leave not only supports child and maternal health, paternity leave also reduces costly employment turnover for men. Fathers who take paternity leave return to work more engaged and productive, and they are likely to stay at their company longer, according to a 2021 study by McKinsey & Co.

The study also found that fathers who take paternity leave minimized the negative impacts on their female partners’ careers. In the long term, this resulted in increased family financial well-being and decreased the gender wage gap withing households.

Taking paternity leave is also a powerful act of male allyship that advances women’s workplace equality more broadly. When men return to work after paternity leave, they report less sexist beliefs, show greater empathy for working mothers, and become stronger advocates for work-family policies, according to a 2023 study published in the Cambridge University Press.

Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions