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Background Earned sick leave (ESL) impacts the economic security of families of workers as it enables workers to take time off to address personal or familial health issues, with pay and job protection. All forms of child maltreatment are strongly related to the economic position of a family, but the relationship between state-level ESL policy adoption and rates of parent-perpetrated child maltreatment remains unexamined.Methods Annual state rates of parent-perpetrated maltreatment, neglect and physical abuse of children under the age of 5 years were derived from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System Child Files (2010–2019). ESL policy information was accessed from the Law Atlas of the Center for Public Health Law Research and the issue brief from the US Department of Labor Women’s Bureau. Two-way fixed effects and Gardner’s two-stage difference-in-differences generated average treatment on the treated estimates. Secondary analyses were performed within each racial/ethnic group, and using late adopting states rather than never adopting states as controls.Results State adoption of ESL policies reduces rates of female parent-perpetrated physical abuse of all children under the age of 5 years (average treatment effect on the treated (ATT): −0.301, p=0.04). Racially stratified analyses indicate ESL policies reduce physical abuse perpetrated by parent, specifically female parent, in Hispanic children under the age of 5 years (ATT: −0.348 and −0.385, p=0.03 and p=0.02, respectively). Alternative specifications using late adopting states indicate ESL enactment may also reduce female parent-perpetrated physical abuse of Black children (ATT:−0.453, p=0.04), and parent-perpetrated maltreatment of Asian children (ATT:−0.371, p=0.04).Conclusion ESL policies may be particularly protective against female parent-perpetrated physical abuse.