Many MindedFathers now file half of California's paid bonding leave claims
California men filed 51% of the state's bonding leave claims in 2025. That is the first year they outnumbered women in the program. When it began in 2004, men were about 18% of applicants. Men also make up roughly half of bonding claims in several other states, and Colorado and Washington are cited as places where they have passed women.
California is one of 14 states plus Washington, D.C., with paid family leave programs. The federal government guarantees no paid parental leave. California's program pays for up to eight weeks of bonding leave within a year of a birth or adoption. Mothers also get six to eight weeks of paid disability leave to recover from birth. The program is funded entirely by employee payroll deductions, as in five other states. In 2025 California raised the share of income it replaces, and benefits in California and other states can reach 90% of regular salary.
This matters for care because a benefit that is both well paid and widely used is one people can actually take. Paid leave is linked in research to lower odds of postpartum depression and lower infant mortality. Pew found 84% of full-time working parents who are not self-employed said paid leave would be very or extremely helpful, but only half said they had it. Higher replacement rates and even use by fathers make time with a newborn less dependent on a family's savings or an employer's generosity.
The caveats are real. The data covers only state programs, not employer-provided leave. California's Employment Development Department could not give definitive reasons for the rise. Molly Weston Williamson of Paid Leave for All says it is unclear whether more fathers are employed and eligible or whether women are taking less leave. Watch whether more states adopt programs, and whether women's leave use holds steady as men's grows.
Source: KFF Health News