Does Maternity Leave Induce Births?

This study examines the impact of maternity benefits on subsequent fertility among working women and on attracting women who desire high fertility to a firm with good maternity benefits. Data were obtained from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience of Youth for 510 women experiencing a first birth after 1985 (2192 person years). Age subsamples are used in model estimation in order to test for sample selection biases since 80% of the original 1979 sample had a first birth prior to 1985. Findings from the discrete-time hazard model of the time to first birth indicate that desired fertility does not appear to have an impact on the chances of a young woman being in a job with maternity leave. High wage women and full-time workers were more likely to have maternity leave than low-wage and part-time workers. Managers and professionals and women in the financial industry were more likely to have maternity leave than women in service agricultural and wholesale/retail trade. Women in union jobs were more likely to have maternity benefits. The probability of having maternity leave declined with increasing levels of education and increased with increasing age. Latinos were more likely to be in jobs with maternity benefits than either Blacks or Whites. Reestimation among a subsample of 886 women aged 22-26 years in 1985 substantiated findings that desired fertility had no impact on having a job with maternity leave and that wages and hours were significant explanatory variables in addition to education a job in financial services and being Hispanic. Western state residence was negative and significant only in this subsample. Region affected the probability of first birth. There was no evidence that maternity leave directly or indirectly influenced the fertility of female employees.