Women on Medicaid less likely to be aware of paid parental leave policies

A new study of people working in San Francisco finds that women with Medicaid coverage were unaware of the city's paid parental leave mandate. San Francisco in 2017 became the first place in the U.S. to require companies with employees working in the city to compensate new parents with 100% of their salary for up to six weeks. Even after the ordinance was passed, women on Medicaid were less likely to be aware of and have employer guidance on their maternal benefits and more likely to say nobody helped them find benefits information compared to women not on Medicaid. An analysis of benefits data also found that although the ordinance helped 13% more fathers take parental leave, it didn't make a difference among mothers, the majority of whom were already taking parental leave.