Data from the Society for Human Resource Management showing a decline in paid parental leave policies do not necessarily indicate a larger trend of employers rolling back such benefits amid economic uncertainty, a pair of SHRM researchers told HR Dive in an interview Monday.
In June, SHRM published the results of its 2022 Employee Benefits Survey. The study of more than 3,000 employer representatives found that the number of companies providing paid leave for new parents, beyond what is required by law, had fallen since 2020. Namely, 35% organizations said they offered paid maternity leave and 27% offered paid paternity leave, compared to 53% and 44% of organizations in 2020, respectively.
SHRM found similar declines in the share of employers offering paid adoption leave and paid foster child leave, with the organization’s press release on the survey stating that employers “seem to be dialing back on expanded parental leave opportunities since returning back to more normal operations.”
Speaking to HR Dive, Daniel Stunes, senior researcher, strategic research initiatives at SHRM, and Derrick Scheetz, researcher at SHRM, said they stood by this assessment, noting the importance of historical context in assessing the 2022 survey’s results. In SHRM’s analysis of its 2021 survey, which indicated growth for parental leave and family leave programs, the organization said the upward trend may have been impacted by increased federal requirements under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, as the maternity/paternity leave section of the 2020/2021 survey did not mention the FFCRA.
Stunes said that levels of paid parental leave recorded in the 2022 survey are comparable to those SHRM found in its 2019 benefits survey. For example, 34% of respondents in the 2019 survey offered paid maternity leave, while 30% offered paid paternity leave.
SHRM’s findings on the state of paid parental leave in 2022 stirred speculation among some observers that employers may be cutting back on expanded paid leave programs due to economic factors including inflation. But the survey was conducted between January and February, Stunes said, when the U.S. Consumer Price Index sat below 2% and before higher levels of inflation had set in during the spring and summer.
There are several possibilities that could explain the declining paid leave trend, but Stunes said he does not believe SHRM’s findings indicate employers are going to drop their parental leave programs altogether; “I don’t think it’s a big thing to panic about.”
Stunes and Scheetz outlined those possible explanations, which range from the fact that jurisdictional paid leave requirements have increased in the past year, to the idea that employers may have decided to combine pre-existing maternity and paternity leave programs into more comprehensive family leave programs.
But a competitive market will make it difficult for employers to cut back on leave, as employees could look for opportunities with other organizations that have not made the same cuts. Attrition resulting from parental leave cutbacks “is going to be way more expensive in the long run” than any expense incurred by keeping existing programs, Stunes noted.
“If employers [and employees] are saying that healthcare, leave and retirement are the most important things, I find it hard to believe that organizations are going to get rid of them,” Stunes said.
