Paid leave for new parents: Is the US finally catching up?
It鈥檚 been a good week for new parents: Since Tuesday, three major corporations have amended their parental leave policies to lift pressure on employees struggling to balance work and life with a new baby.
On Monday, Adobe Systems, Inc. became the latest high-tech company to announce more generous parental leave periods, following announcements by聽 and . In a Senior Vice President of People and Places Donna Morris called the trend 鈥渁n industry movement to better support our employees while striving towards increased workforce diversity.鈥�
The new program, which will take effect in November, offers up to 16 weeks of fully paid leave for primary caregivers and 10 weeks of medical leave for childbirth, totaling 26 weeks for a birth mother who is her child鈥檚 primary caregiver, the post said. non-primary caregivers will receive up to 14 weeks of paid leave.
鈥淚n the US, government mandates for paid leave are currently slim to nonexistent,鈥� Ms. Morris said. 鈥淭hat means companies must navigate the tough balance between supporting employees during major life events and meeting business goals. Too often, employees have not had the support they need.鈥�
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics say only in the United States had access to paid family leave in 2012. Towers Watson benefit consultant Mary Tavarozzi paid leave for American mothers usually lasts around a month.聽
the United States is the only high-income country that does not have nationally mandated paid family leave. In contrast, workers in Britain are given up to a full year of mostly-paid family leave.
President Barack Obama has talked about closing this gap between the United States and its peers, In December, he began giving federal employees six weeks of paid family leave following the birth of a child.
鈥淚t鈥檚 time we stop treating childcare as a side issue or a women鈥檚 issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is,鈥� he said in his in January.
Some studies have shown that the benefits of paid parental leave are tangible beyond the relief new parents experience at being able to focus on their children without worrying about money.
showed that in the second year of their children鈥檚 lives, mothers who took advantage of a paid family leave program in California were 6 percent more likely to be working again, and those who returned to their jobs were working 15-20 percent more hours and earning 5 percent higher hourly wages.
On the management side, the paid family leave program did not seem to hurt California businesses as some critics feared it would. A said 89 to 99 percent of employers said the program had no negative effect on productivity, profitability, turnover, or morale and 87 percent said the program did not increase costs.
鈥淔or workers who use these programs, they are extremely beneficial,鈥� Ruth Milkman, a City University of New York sociologist who co-authored the study, told the Times. 鈥淎nd the business lobby鈥檚 predictions about how these programs are really a big burden on employers are not accurate.鈥�
Adobe鈥檚 parental leave changes have been in the works for some time, ,聽and are independent of similar actions taken by Netflix and Microsoft.
鈥淎t Adobe, we often say that our most important assets leave the building at the end of the day,鈥� Morris said in the blog post. 鈥淥ur employees are our intellectual property and our future. Now we will better support all of them, across a spectrum of age, gender and experience, with a diverse mix of family needs and situations. The investment is unquestionably worth it.鈥�
