Isophoric News · Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Men filed 51% of California's paid bonding leave claims in 2025, up from about 18% in 2004
NPR reported, in a story produced with KFF Health News, that men made up 51% of paid bonding leave claims in California in 2025, against about 18% when the state program began in 2004. A June release from Gov. Gavin Newsom's office gave the same two shares and cited analysis by the state Employment Development Department, but described them as shares of bonding leave applications. The release also said there were more than 482,000 applications in 2025, the most in the program's history. According to NPR, California is one of 14 states plus Washington, D.C. with paid family leave programs, there is no national paid parental leave law, and California offers up to eight weeks of bonding leave, with benefits since 2025 as high as 90% of regular pay. Molly Weston Williamson, policy director at the advocacy group Paid Leave for All, told NPR that changing gender norms, greater awareness of the program and the higher benefit were likely factors, but that the data show only part of the story, since it cannot say whether more fathers are eligible or whether mothers are choosing not to take leave. An Employment Development Department spokesperson told NPR the department could not give definitive reasons for the increase, and NPR noted the figures cover only leave taken through the state program, not paid leave offered by employers.
