Will This Family-Friendly Trend Take Hold in Your Workplace?
Parental leave policies are getting a significant boost at some big tech companies. In California, San Jose-based Adobe is the latest tech company to announce it is expanding its family leave program.
Both Netflix and Microsoft recently announced they were bolstering their parental leave policies.
Adobe, a multinational software company that employs about 13,500 people, is offering its primary caregiver parents 16 weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. That 16 weeks is in addition to 10 weeks of paid medical leave that Adobe allows new mothers to take after childbirth.
Nonprimary caregiving parents are allowed four weeks of paid leave.
In addition, Adobe will also offer employees up to four weeks of family leave if they need to care for a sick family member.
Adobe’s new leave policy will take effect Nov. 1.
“At Adobe, we often say that our most important assets leave the building at the end of the day,” said Donna Morris, senior vice president of people and places at Adobe. “Our 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.”
Netflix is offering maternity and paternity leave — up to one year — for new parents. Microsoft’s new policy allows moms to take up to 20 weeks of paid maternity leave, plus dads can take 12 weeks of paternity leave.
According to a new report by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute, more employers are offering paid leave policies, which includes sick, family and maternity leave. But the percentage of companies that offer paid maternity leave is low, just 21 percent. Still, that figure is a big jump from the 12 percent of companies that offered it just one year before the report.
It’s exciting to see more companies offering paid parental leave.
What does your employer offer for parental leave? What do you think of Adobe’s policy change? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.
This article was originally published on MoneyTalksNews.com as 'Will This Family-Friendly Trend Take Hold in Your Workplace?'.