California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) said men made up 51% of bonding-leave applicants in 2025, the first time they surpassed mothers, while federal law does not guarantee paid leave to private-sector workers.
Across all qualifying reasons, the program logged more than 482,000 applications in 2025, a record. That total also includes applications for care of seriously ill family members and certain military-family needs, so it is not a count of bonding applicants alone.
Eligible workers can receive up to eight weeks of paid family leave. For new claims filed on or after Jan. 1, 2025, those earning under $63,000 a year could receive up to 90% of regular wages, while higher earners could receive up to 70%, according to state guidance. Employees fund the program through payroll deductions, which provide eligible parents time with a new child and partial wage replacement.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) says no federal law guarantees paid family and medical leave for private-sector workers. Eligible workers can take unpaid, job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The trend has also appeared in other state programs. Paid Leave for All said in a June 2026 report that men accounted for at least 40% of bonding claims in eight of 10 state programs with a full year of data. In the latest annual figures it reviewed, men matched or exceeded women’s claim numbers in California, Colorado and Washington.
“Knowing about PFL was like a huge godsend,” said Chiu Chiyabi, a California father who used the program.
Public concern over family costs has also risen. In the 2025 American Family Survey, 71% of respondents disagreed that raising children is affordable for most people, up 13 percentage points from 2024. The report called that the largest single-year increase in concern since the survey began in 2015. The survey measured views on affordability; it did not establish whether those views shaped leave decisions.
An EDD spokesperson told NPR the department had no definitive explanation for the increase. NPR cited changing views of fathers’ caregiving roles, greater awareness of the benefit and higher payments as possible contributors, not established causes. NPR also noted that the state figures cover program users, exclude employer-provided leave and do not show what share of eligible parents took leave.
