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• Posted July 2, 2025

Most Dads Take Two Weeks or Less of Parental Leave, Study Finds

Taking time off work when a baby is born is good for dads and babies alike. But a new study finds that most fathers still don’t take much parental leave — often because they simply can’t afford to.

Just 36% of new dads said they took more than two weeks of leave after their child’s birth, while 64% said they took two weeks or less, according to new research published in the journal Pediatrics.

The findings are part of a first-of-its-kind project that tracked the health and behavior of fathers before and after their children were born, The Washington Post reported.

Researchers surveyed 261 men in Georgia who had children in 2018 or 2019. Of those, 240 said they were employed at the time.

Among those dads with jobs, about 73% reported taking some parental leave. Roughly half who took leave had at least some paid time off, while 20% said they only had unpaid leave.

What's more, nearly 43% of the working fathers said they wanted more time off but couldn’t take it.

“What we found with this study is that if there was the availability of paid leave, fathers would have fewer barriers, and they’d take it,” study co-author Clarissa Simon, a research associate at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine told The Post.

Fathers talked about not being able to afford unpaid time off, not having enough leave time built up or fearing job loss.

Paternal leave has been linked to better infant health and improved parenting skills, experts say.

“Fathers can and should experience the pains and the joys of parenthood, and the best way to do that is if [they] take a break from work to spend time with their new baby without financial barriers or stressors like fear of job loss," Simon said.

More information

National Partnership for Women & Families has more on the benefits of paid parental leave.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, June 28, 2025