The Parent Friendly Workplace is on the Rise

A Mother’s Day Shout Out in Celebration of the Parent Friendly Workplace!

There is a whole lot to say about the shortcomings of American workplace policies and laws as they apply to working parents and, particularly, working mothers.  And from time to time, we join the chorus in calling out those problems.  But today, with Mother’s Day around the corner, we at CLF want to give a great big shout out to all of the private companies and public entities that have made important strides over the past couple of years in ensuring a parent friendly workplace.  So, without further ado, a round of applause for the following:

• Adobe offers 26 weeks of paid time off for new mothers and 16 weeks of paid parental leave for fathers and other employees who become parents via adoption, surrogacy, or foster care.  The company also offers up to 4 weeks of paid time off to care for a sick child or family member.
• Apple offers 4 weeks of paid leave before giving birth to expectant mothers, 14 weeks maternity leave after giving birth, and 6 weeks paid leave to all other non-birth parents.
• Arnold & Porter LLP offers 18 weeks paid parental leave for primary caretakers and 6 weeks paid parental leave for secondary caretakers.
• Bank of America offers 12 weeks of paid parental leave to all employees.
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation offers 52 weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave.
• Blackstone offers 16 weeks of paid maternity leave.
• Bloomberg offers 18 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers and 4 weeks of paid leave for non-primary caregivers.
• Change.org offers 18 weeks of fully paid parental leave to all employees.
• Credit Suisse offers 20 weeks of paid leave to all new parents who work more than 20 hours per week – whether hourly or salaried.
• Facebook and Instagram offer 17 weeks of paid parental leave to all new parents to be used at any point during the course of the baby’s first year.
• Goldman Sachs offers 16 weeks of paid maternity leave to new mothers and four weeks of paid leave to non-primary care givers.
• Google offers 18 weeks of paid leave to birth mothers, 12 weeks to primary care givers, and 7 weeks of paid leave to all other new parents.
• Johnson & Johnson offers up to 17 weeks of paid maternity leave to birth mothers and 8 weeks of paid leave to all other new parents.
• Microsoft offers 20 weeks of paid leave to birth mothers and 12 weeks of paid leave to all other new parents.
• Nestle offers 14 weeks of paid parental leave to primary care givers and an additional 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
• Netflix offers unlimited paid parental leave to all employees within their first year of becoming a parent.
• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe offers 22 weeks of paid leave for all new parents and will allow employees to a total of 9 months off of work without risk of losing their jobs.
• Reddit offers 16 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Rhode Island provides up to 8 weeks of paid family leave to care for a new child or sick or injured family member.
• San Francisco is the first city in the country to provide 6 weeks of fully paid parental leave to all parents.
• Twitter offers 20 weeks of paid leave to birth mothers and 10 weeks of paid bonding time to all other parents.
• U.S. Navy offers 12 paid weeks of maternity leave.
• Vodafone offers a minimum of 16 weeks paid leave to new mothers and allows mothers to return from maternity leave on a 30 hour per week schedule at full time pay for their first six months back to work.
• And an increasing number of states and cities are now mandating paid time off to care for sick children and family members without risk of losing a job.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it shows what great strides the country is making in providing common sense, family-friendly workplace policies even in the absence of much-needed federal legislation.  We have so much further to go collectively, but we are happy to see these trends gaining traction and getting attention!

So thank you to the mothers and fathers and organizers and politicians who have called for workplace policies which respect the fact that we can be both parents and professionals at the same time and which provide the time and financial support necessary to do so successfully.  And thank you to the corporate and public leaders who have heard that call and helped to put these policies in place.

And from one happily working mother to the rest of you out there, Happy Mother’s Day!!