Are medical associations' paid parental leave recommendations instituted for United States medical school faculty?

Abstract

Longer paid parental leaves have many well-documented biopsychosocial benefits for parents and children. However, many United States (U.S.) employers do not offer 8-12 weeks of paid parental leave as recommended by medical associations such as The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association. This study compared and summarized the quality of parental leave policies offered across U.S. allopathic medical schools to determine their alignment with medical associations' recommendations. Parental leave policies were analyzed to determine 1) whether employers offered standalone parental leave policies and/or relied on the Family Medical Leave Act, 2) who received parental leave, 3) whether leave was paid or unpaid, and 4) the number of paid weeks offered, if any. Differences in leave durations were compared according to Carnegie classifications, school control, and geographic region. Of the 134 (85.9%; 134/156) allopathic medical schools with retrievable policies, one-fifth (21.6%; 29/134) offered 12 weeks or more of fully compensated birthing parent leave. Schools offered an average of 6.72 weeks (median = 6) of paid birthing parent leave and 5.82 weeks (median = 6) of paid non-birthing parent leave. Private (p < 0.001) and Northeast (p < 0.001) schools offered more weeks of paid birthing parent leave. Despite the benefits of longer paid parental leaves, over three-quarters of parental leave policies used by allopathic medical schools did not offer faculty 12 weeks of fully paid birthing parent (78.4%; 105/134) or non-birthing parent leave (84.3%; 113/134). This suggests that most parental leave policies offered to academic medicine faculty are misaligned with medical associations' recommendations.