Diving Into the Data: Why Are So Many People Taking Leave?

play icon A newspaper titled "The Wall Street Journal" rests on a marble surface. The headline reads "More Workers Take Parental Leave as States, Employers Expand Eligibility," accompanied by an image of a father and two young children working on a craft project at a table, highlighting evolving leave policies.

Sparrow’s CEO & Cofounder, Deborah Hanus, took the stage at SHRM23 with SHRM’s Executive Network, and dove into the data in The Wall Street Journal’s recent discussion of why employee leave rates are at all-time highs.


Employee leave claims are at all-time highs and rising nationwide as reported by The Wall Street Journal’s April headline. Why? What can we do to proactively prepare for this ever-changing compliance landscape? In this presentation, we discuss questions like:

  • Are states providing more paid family and medical leave?
  • Is the number of parental leaves increasing?
  • Are some people taking more leave?
  • Is the perception of leave changing?

Deborah shares practical tips on how to build a great leave policy from experience collaborating with 300+ top People leaders who have partnered with Sparrow.

Access the Discussion

"Building a robust and inclusive policy does not need to be expensive. It just needs to be clear and comprehensive."

Deborah Hanus
CEO & Cofounder