I Do What I Have to Do: Perceptions of Family Leave among Low-Wage Workers Largely Left Out of FMLA.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines the challenge of work-life balance for U.S. parents who must tend to both full-time earning and full-time household duties. The current U.S. system of weak and patchwork laws protecting worker leave makes such leave inaccessible to a large part of the population, especially low-wage workers. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore how low-wage workers in Western Pennsylvania make decisions concerning the need for paid family leave. This research will investigate how workers care for family members while holding down a low-wage job and consists of 18 in-depth interviews with low-wage workers in Western Pennsylvania, a state without universal paid family leave. The data collected will add to the existing literature, which has largely consisted of quantitative studies. Understanding the reasons workers do not use family leave could help officials improve policies to better address worker needs. In a state like Pennsylvania with no paid family leave program, the data collected by the study will help inform policy design by including a previously neglected population; low-wage workers.