The budget app for parental leave runway math

There is no federal paid parental leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for eligible employees at companies with 50 or more workers — but unpaid is the operative word, and FMLA covers only about 60% of the US workforce. Thirteen states plus DC have enacted state paid family leave programs (California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware, Minnesota, Maine), with benefits typically 50-90% of wages for 6-12 weeks. Employer-paid leave varies widely: BLS data shows about 27% of US private-sector workers have access to any paid family leave through their employer, usually 6-8 weeks at full or partial pay. The honest budgeting question isn't 'how much leave can I take' — it's 'how much income will I actually have during the weeks I take', summed with savings to cover the gap.

The standard frame is to cover the income gap during leave plus the front-loaded new-baby costs plus your normal emergency buffer. For a household making $7,000 a month with 8 weeks of leave at 60% of wages, the income gap is roughly $5,600 ($7,000 x 40% x 2 months). Add $4,000-$6,000 in third-trimester and early-baby costs (gear, hospital pre-pay, initial pediatric copays). On top of the normal 3-6 month emergency fund, that's $9,600-$11,600 in dedicated leave-period savings, ideally built over the 6-9 months before the due date. Cash Compass makes this a tracked category — set the target, set a monthly transfer rate, and the chart shows whether you'll hit it by week 36 of pregnancy. If the projection comes up short, the two levers are increasing the monthly transfer or planning a shorter leave.

Five categories that consistently land during weeks 1-12 of leave. Hospital and delivery bills, which typically arrive 30-60 days after discharge and run $3,000-$10,000 after insurance for a typical delivery. Pediatric copays for the well-baby visits at week 1, week 2, month 1, month 2, and month 4 ($100-$300 total, more if specialist visits are needed). Postpartum medical costs for the birthing parent — therapy, pelvic floor PT, medications, lactation consultants ($500-$2,000 commonly out-of-pocket). Diapers and feeding supplies running roughly $80-$150 a month. And the daycare deposit that's usually due 4-8 weeks before the parent returns to work ($500-$2,500 depending on the city). None are surprises individually, but the timing clusters them. A 'leave-period costs' category in Cash Compass with these line items pre-built avoids the month-six surprise.

Daycare is usually the single largest budget shift after leave ends, and it tends to cost more than parents project. The Department of Labor's National Database of Childcare Prices puts full-time infant care at $9,000-$18,000 a year in most metropolitan areas, with high-cost cities (NYC, Bay Area, Boston, DC) running $20,000-$30,000. That's $750-$2,500 a month, often consuming 30-50% of one parent's take-home pay. Three planning moves help: budget the post-leave monthly baseline before deciding the leave length (cutting leave short doesn't help if daycare consumes the recovered income anyway), check whether your employer offers a Dependent Care FSA (you can set aside up to $5,000 pre-tax in 2025, saving roughly $1,000-$1,500 in taxes), and apply to waitlists during the second trimester — most quality daycares have 6-12 month waits. Run the post-leave Cash Compass chart with daycare added; if it's negative, the question is which other category gives.