Young Workers Speak Out

Executive Summary

This first-of-its-kind report provides in-depth case study analysis of young people from across the country and their paid leave needs. Conducted over 18 months, it uses eleven detailed examples of youth ages 18 to 30 in seven states and Washington D.C., including both localities that have access to paid leave laws and those who do not. This report finds that youth in America, especially in regions like the South with high populations of Black and Brown young people, desperately need policies that provide adequate and accessible paid leave from employment. Our youth cannot thrive without robust paid leave policies that work for them – whether that means taking time off to care for a sick younger sibling or a parent with a disability, dealing with a mental health issue without risking their economic security, or feeling confident applying to a job while pregnant knowing they will have leave to take care of a new infant.

What’s new in this report:

• Prior reports focused on the needs of youth did not include the critical area of paid leave for young workers. Paid leave reports leave out the unique perspectives of youth. This report is the first to analyze the intersection of these two issue areas in detail.
• This report provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of the needs and concerns of youth who require paid leave for physical and mental health, including their direct perspectives and experiences.
• This report provides recommendations for how to enact and implement paid leave policies in ways that most benefit young workers, a core demographic for our economy and democracy.  

The Issue

One generation of workers is left out of the paid leave conversation in the United States, which is focused on stereotypical white professionals aged 30 to 45. Youth workers are a large segment of the American work and care force, but often occupy positions that do not offer guaranteed rights to paid leave, whether that be paid family and medical leave (“PFML”) or paid sick time. Without a national law ensuring that all workers are able to care for themselves and their loved ones, many young workers are left to choose between their personal or financial wellbeing.

Data has increasingly revealed that young workers are an expanding portion of caregivers in the country. For these sandwiched generations – those caring for aging or ill family members and raising children of their own while simultaneously caring for themselves – the demand for flexible policies that recognize their humanity is at an all time high. Despite this, youth workers reveal that they experience extreme difficulties utilizing or obtaining paid leave. Whether it be fear of a hostile work environment, a lack of knowledge around what is available, or a general lack of access, it is clear that these workers are not receiving the help they need. With Americans struggling to juggle the dual mental loads of clocking out of work just to clock in at home, American policies are proving drastically too slow to catch up.

The United States remains one of the only developed nations that does not offer a guaranteed right to paid leave. This means that it is left to the discretion of the states and local governments to implement PFML and paid sick day programs, a majority of which have yet to do so. This creates an inequitable patchwork that stops these lifesaving policies at the arbitrary boundaries of state or city lines. For youth workers who live in a state with guaranteed rights to paid leave, there remain barriers  that make it difficult for them to feel empowered to utilize these rights. For workers who do not live in a state that provides a legal right to paid leave, the fear of financial ruin is even more heightened.

The perplexing and counterintuitive political landscape illustrates that there is a very real need for paid leave among young workers, but they are rarely at the center of the conversation. Not only are they leading the new wave of caregiving, including chosen and non-nuclear style families, they are taking over the workforce from an aging population and voting in record numbers. Youth workers have made it clear that paid leave is one of their top workplace benefits. Lawmakers need to be centering the lived experiences of the generation that need these policies most.

Methodology

In late 2023 and early 2024, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and A Better Balance (ABB) interviewed young advocates for this report to highlight the need for paid leave within the youth workforce. We conducted one-on-one interviews with 11 young workers between the ages of 18 and 30. Several of these workers were identified after they utilized ABB’s helpline for legal aid. Their experiences encompassed needing and accessing leave—including unpaid leave, paid family and medical leave, and paid time off including paid sick days. CLASP also identified interviewees who experienced struggles with varying types of leave.

We interviewed workers across several industries, experiences, and locations. Several interviewees are from states with statewide PFML or paid sick time programs, several live in states with no such program, but they had workplace specific paid leave, and some had no access to paid leave at all. The qualitative data collected from these interviews highlights that across industry, age, gender, background, and location, youth workers are experiencing similar realities when it comes to paid leave.

Central Findings:

• Youth do not know what type of leave they can access.. While state programs offer critical benefits and job protections, young workers often have a difficult time navigating their rights and accessing their benefits. Young workers voiced uncertainty about which laws applied to them, finding the patchwork of federal, state, and local laws confusing and complicated. Youth were also confused as to what counts as paid family and medical leave (longer-term paid leave) versus other workplace leave benefits used for shorter increments of time, such as paid time off (PTO) and accrued sick days. Often interviewees conflated one bucket of leave with another, using them interchangeably, illustrating that there needs to be clear differentiated rights to each type of leave.
• Even when able to access leave, young workers do not have necessary information about the application process. Some of our participants used paid family and medical leave programs in the past but described difficulties in navigating the application process and approval process, and in accessing their benefits. Many young workers described detrimental economic consequences from delays in medical certification, approval, appeals, and in receiving payment of benefits. Some of these delays were due to legal provisions and some due to employer policies.
• Young workers desire access to information on their rights and benefits. Almost all of our interview participants described feeling disconnected from the information on leave benefits that are currently offered by their workplaces, cities, and states. In the workplace, participants stressed the importance of written and media-based communications about leave. They expressed frustration with workplace policies that were often communicated via word-of-mouth, as well as trainings that only took place during hiring. Young workers want to learn their rights through multiple formats, and continuously.
• Fear of retaliation often keeps young workers from taking needed leave. Both in states with active paid leave programs and in states without such programs, several young workers described encountering employer resistance to leave-taking. Workers in states with paid leave programs were often unaware of the law’s job protection or anti-retaliation provisions, and some employers seemed to illegally ignore them. This often led to prohibited retaliation in the form of outright firing, being denied promotions, or being pressured to leave their jobs. In general, fear of economic instability through retaliatory action led workers to refrain from taking needed time off, quit their jobs, or engage in presenteeism (coming in to work while sick).
• Young workers struggle, due to systemic racism, sexism, and adultism, when trying to take leave and maintain economic stability. Young workers are acutely aware of how systemic inequality affects their working lives. Our participants described how racism, sexism, and their status as young workers boxed them out of information and into low-quality jobs. Participants voiced their hopes for the future and bold visions for job quality while recognizing how cultural stereotypes around their identities are at odds with these visionary futures. One interviewee, a Haitian immigrant, dreams of working with the federal government to help those with experiences like hers, but she also stated that pursuing such a career would “not work with having a family.”
• Workplace culture plays a large role in fostering environments where taking time off feels possible. Some participants described gaining knowledge and confidence from encouraging and supportive coworkers and supervisors. Conversely, other participants described workplace cultures of overwork, understaffing, and surveillance where taking any time off felt impossible in states where there were no legal rights.
• Scheduling and flexibility—both within the workplace and in young workers’ home lives—play an outsized role in determining their ability to take leave. Participants described how their ability to take leave depended on schedule flexibility. In their workplaces, workers describe needing to get their shifts covered, worrying about burdening coworkers with extra work, and having to predict their leave needs. Many participants are working while navigating childcare, being primary caregivers, having multiple jobs, and other situations that stymie their flexibility.
• Young workers recognize the negative effect a lack of paid leave has on their mental health. Across all the topics we covered, young workers deeply understand how poor job quality eats away at their mental health. Our participants desire policies that prioritize mental health equally to physical health and make room for workers to be well. They view paid leave as just one policy in a suite of job quality policies that can improve young workers’ mental health.

Recommendations

• Youth workers should be involved in all policy conversations that will involve them and their futures.We’ve long heard the battle cry “nothing for us without us,” and policymakers are responsible for ensuring even the youngest of their constituents are being brought to the table. This report makes it clear that young workers know what they need in order to thrive at home and at work. Young workers should feel empowered to share their stories and have them valued by decision makers.
• America needs a national paid family and medical leave program to provide rights for all, regardless of the state in which they live. While statewide PFML programs are proving these policies are not only sustainable, but also help communities thrive, they can only offer protections to those who live within their jurisdictions. Paid family and medical leave gives workers the power to make choices about their own lives while continuing to feel empowered and protected in the workplace. By enacting a national policy, Americans across the country can take the time they need to care for themselves and their loved ones, without jeopardizing their financial wellbeing.
• A national right to paid sick time would keep workers healthy and attached to the workforce. Paid sick time is proven to reduce absenteeism, improve employee morale, and increase public health across communities. Far too many young workers do not have even a single day of sick time, making it impossible for them to take time off from work without fearing losing a paycheck or their jobs. Setting a national standard for the minimum number of sick days every worker in America is entitled to would help reduce the spread of illness and lessen the fear of taking a day off from work to heal.

The findings of this report reveal not only the critical need for paid leave policies on the state and federal level as a transformational tool to improve youth workers’ physical and mental health and economic security, but also the need for increased investment in community education and worker outreach to create a more equitable and positive workplace. Any nationwide paid leave program must take into consideration the unique needs of youth while developing the program and implementing it.