Investing in parental leave benefits companies financially, expert says
(NewsNation) — Amid headlines of Karoline Leavitt leaving her position as White House press secretary to spend more time with family and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez documenting her plan to freeze her eggs, one workplace equity expert is sharing new research about the economic benefits of supporting mothers in the workforce.
More than 400,000 women left the U.S. workforce during the first half of 2025, according to a University of Kansas analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The study found that 341,000 mothers of young children left the workforce over the past year, marking the steepest decline in more than 40 years. Researchers cited return-to-office pressures and difficulty finding adequate child care as major factors.
Lauren Smith Brody, founder and CEO of The Fifth Trimester, a resource for working mothers, said the trend is likely tied to the short duration of maternity leave in the United States.
“It is, in America, typically around the 8- to 12-week mark that the mom is going back to her paid work, which is vastly earlier than would be protective of her physical health, her mental health, baby’s physical health, dad or partner’s bond with the baby,” she said on “Morning in America.”
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Brody said those challenges lead many mothers to leave the workforce within a year of giving birth.
“Every day… as a working mother is a challenge,” Leavitt told NewsNation’s Markie Martin. “You have to make sacrifices, you have to prioritize your time and you have to say no to a lot of opportunities that come your way because you want to be there for bedtime with your kids every night.”
But Brody’s research suggests that investing in parents’ ability to be caregivers can produce significant economic benefits.
“Kids motivate parents to earn more, to stay in their jobs longer, to do more business development,” she said. “They do all of this because they feel motivated to do meaningful and economically valuable work that their kids can aspire to, too.”
According to her research, every dollar an employer invests in programs that help mothers balance work and caregiving, including paid family leave and backup child care, generates $18.93 in value for employers and employees.
“It’s a great economic decision,” Brody said. “This is what we see when employers support moms coming back from their leave through that first transitional time and through every other working and parenting transition, and there are many, many of them. It pays off in spades.”
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