Amid federal efforts to enhance job quality and access to employer-provided benefits, states are implementing and expanding paid family medical leave programs. And with that, policymakers and employers need more information on how to better serve workers. This is especially true for Hispanic employees, who represent 18 percent of the US labor force and are fueling projected labor market growth—yet many still earn disproportionately low wages and are not offered employer benefits, such as paid family leave.

This project aims to generate evidence on how to design public and private paid family leave programs that minimize administrative burden and are more inclusive of and accessible to Hispanic workers and small businesses. A team from Brandeis University and UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization, will lead a rigorous qualitative study to achieve the following:

• Identify state paid family medical leave policy implementation processes that facilitate or exclude Hispanic and immigrant workers’ participation.
• Assess access and uptake from the perspectives of Hispanic community-based organizations, workers, and small business owners, in California, Massachusetts, and New Mexico.