Is your perkthe new
Baseline?
What benefits leaders need to know about the state of leave, and where to act next.
Presented by Shaminder G. & Deana R. · The Larkin Company
Here's what you need to know to standout instead.
Paid parental leave went from perk to baseline
The competitive question is no longer whether you offer it. It's how you design and coordinate it.
Out of every 20 employers, how many offer paid parental leave?
What's feeding into this leave ubiquity? We've identified 3 major forces that aren't just changing what leave is offered, but also where the gaps in your leave programs are
Rising expectations
70%of employees say PTO supports their mental health. They now treat leave as health and family infrastructure.
Mercer, 2026A state-law patchwork
15 + 2states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico, mandate paid family & medical leave, each with its own rules.
Bipartisan Policy Center, 2026An administration squeeze
↑ hrsAs programs multiply and leave volume climbs, the real cost moves to the hours spent running leave.
DMEC/Spring 2025 · NFP 2026"Competitive" depends on who you compare against
Broad-market medians cluster at 6–12 weeks. High-growth and progressive employers run materially longer.
Weeks of paid parental leave, by benchmark
Pick a range to place your policy on the line.Below every benchmark shown. 75% of employers now offer paid parental leave.Below the broad-market floor. The lowest benchmark is Mercer's 6-week median for non-birthing parents.Inside the broad-market band. In line with Mercer's non-birthing median (6) and DMEC's most common (8), but short of Mercer's birthing-parent median (12).At or above the broad-market medians. Still short of the leading edge at 16–18 weeks. One in three Larkin employers offer 13+.At the leading edge. Level with the venture-backed survey (16) and theSkimm's published policy (18).
Mercer and DMEC are medians or most-common values across broad samples. The third-party industry survey covers 250+ venture-backed companies. theSkimm is one leading policy.Larkin employers offer more than the broad market. 1 in 3 provide 13+ weeks paid.
Share of Larkin-administered parental-leave plans by length of paid salary continuation.Nearly every paid parental leave program now pays 100% of salary
Share of parental-leave programs paying full salary. Budget for full pay; don't treat it as a top-up.
DMEC / Spring, 2024Why longer leave pays for itself
drop in the rate new mothers quit after Google raised paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks
Google / Quartzlonger median tenure at companies that offer parental leave
Third-party industry survey, 2026of salary is the typical cost to replace an employee, which is the cost leave helps you avoid
SHRMCoordination is where leave dollars quietly leak
85% of employers run state PFML concurrently with company leave. Only 39% require a state maternity claim.
The leak: from design to filing
61% of staff miss the coordination. Every unfiled state claim and every un-offset overlap is money left on the table.
More states, more rules, more work for HR
Every new state program adds its own rules, rates and filing steps, and employers carry the administration. California's experience shows the programs themselves don't hurt the business. The cost sits in coordinating them.
states now mandate paid family & medical leave
Each with its own rules, rates and filing requirements. Delaware, Maine and Minnesota took effect 2025–2026. Maryland and Virginia phase in later.
Bipartisan Policy Center, 2026And the workload is rising on every axis
The share seeking outside help nearly quadrupled. Percent of employers (FMLA incidence is the average share of the workforce on FMLA leave).
DMEC / Spring, 2025of California employers said paid family leave had a positive effect, or no effect at all, on productivity, profitability, retention and morale.
"Small employers, if anything, report fewer problems than large firms."
U.S. Dept. of Labor review of California's first decade of PFLPast parental leave, coverage falls off a cliff
Employee needs are outrunning employer offerings, and the biggest gaps are in the life stages most workforces share.
Percent of employers offering each type of benefit
DMEC's 2025 survey tracks menstrual leave for the first time.
Three white spaces, and what they cost
Menopause
in U.S. work time lost each year to menopause symptoms ($26.6B including medical costs)
Mayo Clinicof women had an adverse work outcome tied to symptoms; ~11% missed work
Mayo Clinicof employers are unlikely to add menopause leave within 5 years
NFP 2026Caregiving
of employers with caregiver leave provide under three weeks
NFP 2026in lost productivity each year tied to employees' family-care responsibilities
BenefitsPro, 2025of caregiving employees say caregiving hurts their work
LarkinMedical leave
of employers with paid medical leave offer more than the median 6 weeks
Third-party industry surveyof employers vs employees who think sick leave should be more competitive
NFP 2026have an internal policy with comparable accrual to ensure compliance
NFP 2026Mental health has moved into the leave conversation
now link mental-health programs to leave, up from 2023. It's no longer a separate benefits silo.
Percent of employers. DMEC / Spring, 2025.Employees are telling you what they value
say PTO supports their mental health and family-care needs Mercer 2026
of women are concerned about the unpaid-labor and mental-load burden theSkimm 2023
still use half their PTO or less. Availability isn't the same as use. NFP 2026
the leading published benchmark, theSkimm's own policy theSkimm
It's not how much leave you offer. It's how well it works.
Satisfaction with leave moves every outcome leaders care about.
Correlation between satisfaction with leave and each workforce outcome
Satisfaction with leave
- Job satisfaction Strongest · r = 0.58
- Engagement
- Productivity
- Employer advocacy
- Intent to stay
More leave types
No meaningful relationship was found between outcomes and the number of leave types offered.
A better leave experience
Clear communication, a smooth claim, and awareness for newer and younger staff raise satisfaction.
Who actually knows what leave they have?
Awareness also rises with tenure, from 54% among the newest employees to 64% among the longest-serving.
Five moves you can make with what you already have
In the order we'd make them. Each one links back to the evidence behind it.
- 1
Fix your PFML coordination
Require state filing, run concurrent, and offset STD. These are the highest-ROI edits, and no benefit cut is required.
85% vs 39%design for concurrency vs. require a state maternity claimSee the evidence · 03 Cost lever - 2
Benchmark against the right set
Compare durations to your actual talent competitors, not just the broad-market median.
6–18 wksis the whole parental-leave "market rate"See the evidence · 02 Benchmarks - 3
Quantify your admin burden
Tally the hours spent coordinating each leave: filings, top-ups, offsets. That total is the business case for expert administration.
40%of employers now seek outside help, up from 11% in 2023See the evidence · 03 Admin workload - 4
Open the white space
Pilot caregiver, menopause and mental-health support. Low prevalence, high retention signal.
10% · 30%offer menopause accommodations · caregiver leaveSee the evidence · 04 Expectations gap - 5
Drive awareness and use
Satisfaction, not offerings, drives retention. Make leave clear and visible, especially for newer staff.
50% vs 62%leave awareness, Gen Z vs. older generationsSee the evidence · 05 Impact case
ReferenceQuick reference: disability & FMLA design benchmarksShow +Hide −
- STD prevalence
- 80% of employers offer short-term disability
- STD design
- 7-day elimination · 26-week max · 60% benefit rate
- STD funding
- 37% fully insured · 33% self-insured via a TPA
- LTD prevalence
- 94% of employers offer long-term disability
- LTD design
- 180-day elimination · 60% benefit · to SSNRA (57%)
- FMLA proxy
- 55–56% use STD approvals as an FMLA proxy
Only 37% have a formal SAW/RTW program (50% at 10,000+ employees). Budget and staffing are cited as the barriers.
Better leave rarely means more leave. It means less friction, for the person living it and the team running it.The Larkin Perspective
Leave & disability administration
Full-service, tech-enabled administration. Our team runs the day-to-day leave and disability workload, so yours doesn't have to.
PFML coordination
Multi-state compliance and coordination handled, so you capture the savings without the complexity.
Family Care concierge
Support for the caregiving and life-stage needs where most employers have the biggest gaps.