Whether or not Judge Neil Gorsuch actually said women manipulatetheir employers for maternity leave, the flap reflects a beliefmany Americans share: Most people think abuse of paid family and medical leave iscommon.

Earlier this week, a former student said Gorsuch, theSupreme Court nominee now facing confirmation hearings in theSenate, had told her law-school class that new moms manipulatetheir employers for maternity benefits, collecting pay checks fortime away from work and then quitting. Another student disputedthat account. At his hearing, Gorsuch denied that he eversaid as much.

But a new survey by the Pew Research Center outThursday has found many Americans believe workers abusepaid leave — including parental leave, medical leave, and leave tocare for an ailing family member. T

he nationally representative survey found that while a majoritysupports paid family and medical leave of all kinds, 55percent of Americans think it's at least somewhat common forworkers to abuse it by taking time off from work when they don'tneed to. Maybe they think their coworker is feigning illnessto get paid time off, or that their boss doesn't need paidleave after giving birth.

And Republicans are more likely than Democrats to think workersmisuse the paid time off. Two-thirds of Republicans thinkabuse is common, compared with 46 percent of Democrats, the surveyfound. "They do seem to think more people abuse the benefit,"said Juliana Horowitz, one of the authors of the survey.

That might explain why Republicans, in general, are lesssupportive of paid family leave, she added. Around three-quartersof Republicans support paid maternity leave, compared to 90 percentof Democrats. There's less support among workers of bothpolitical persuasions for paid paternity leave: Around 57 percentof Republicans support paternity leave, versus 79 percent ofsurveyed Democrats.

And Americans' leeriness of other people's paidleave-taking is reflected in their reluctance to take very much ofit themselves: More than half the workers Pew surveyedsaid they had taken less time off than they really wanted or neededto after they had a child.

The negative attitude can keep workers from taking timeoff, said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and WorkInstitute, a nonprofit that researches family and work."People don’t feel safe in using it largely because of attitudeslike that," she said. "Although we recognize how importantleave is, unless there is a culture that supports it, people aregoing to worry."

When Pew asked leave-takers of all kinds why they returnedto work early, just under half the respondents said theyfeared risk losing their job. Around a thirdthought taking more time off might hurt their chances foradvancement. Others cited feelings of guilt: 41 percent said theyfelt badly about co-workers taking on additional work.

Those fears aren't unsubstantiated. New moms often return tojobs with fewer responsibilities and face bias in the workplace,resulting in lower pay — a phenomenon known as the "motherhoodpenalty." For every child a woman has, she earns 4 percentless over her lifetime, research from University of Massachusettssociologist Michelle Budig has found.

Men, on the other hand, get a "fatherhood bonus" — a 10 percentbump in earnings when they have kids. Those effects were reflectedin the Pew survey: Only 13 percent of men said taking parentalleave had a negative impact on their careers, compared to a quarterof women.

Without flexibility, parents find it hard to conform to rigidschedules — pushing new moms in particular out of theworkplace. About 12 percent of women who go on maternityleave don't come back, the Pew research found. The surveydidn't ask why, or if these women had discussed the plan with theiremployers.

"When people don't come back, it’s often that it’s not a goodsituation," said Galinsky. "If you don't feel valued andsupported, you're less likely to want to come back." Companies thatoffer longer leave and more flexible schedules and thatencourage new parents to take leave tend to retain more womenworkers, she said. "People tend to come back to places where theyare respected."

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.