Long before the pandemic and the introduction of remote work, a select few industries were pioneering and leading the charge in healthy work-life integration through comprehensive paid parental leave policies. These generous policies were often seen in STEM and start-ups, lauded as progressive workplaces and unicorns to work at. That may have been true in 2018, but the tides have shifted.
Today, paid parental leave remains top of mind for most employees and is consistently requested among 25-34 year old employees. Paid parental leave is necessary among current and expectant parents, and especially for women of color as a tool to close the gender wage gap, advance women’s earning power, and for physical, emotional, and mental health. And, employers are listening!
Mercer’s Health Benefit Strategies for 2023 report cited “paid parental leave is becoming table stakes” and among employers with 500+ FTE, 70% are offering or plan to offer paid parental leave in 2023. Half of employers surveyed, 53%, will be offering paid adoption leave and one-third will be offering paid foster care leave. Compared to just 5 years ago when less than half of all employers viewed paid parental leave as “a relevant employee offering”, paid parental leave has seen demand more than triple. Interestingly, demand for more family-friendly benefits is transcending industries with 70% of employers planning for benefit enhancements in 2023.
The City of San Diego, when evaluating their HR policies, is piloting an increased paid parental leave policy from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. Their goal is to “reduce employee turnover and boost recruitment efforts” with an attractive, and competitive, benefits package. Overhauling their paid parental leave policy, they believe, will also be a positive sign for recruits of their investment in employees, building in a return-to-work pipeline after leave.
There has been a steady employer shift towards a more inclusive workplace and 66% of employers expanded benefit packages based on either employee survey results or input from an employee resource group (ERG).
Below are a few unexpected companies with employer-paid paid parental leave policies.
When considering the cost of paid parental leave, it’s important to note that several employers listed - including those in the education sector and non-profit organizations - operate almost exclusively on donations, tuition/fees, public contributions, grants, fundraising, and government subsidies. These are often institutions that operate in deficits and cut budgets left and right - and yet, they saw the employee need and benefit to institute gender-neutral paid parental leave policies.
Due to COVID, the University of Colorado, Boulder was forced to transition all classes from in-person to virtual midway through the spring 2020 semester. They also reduced in-person and virtual tuition for the summer, fall and winter 2020 semesters, and spent an estimated $63.1m on coronavirus protection, equipment, testing, and student relief fund. The university’s YoY revenue change from 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 was over -$102 million. That’s a significant deficit and amounts to 6% of their revenue. For perspective, Harvard University, which has the world’s largest private endowment, has never exceeded a -1.8% change within a two year span. So, a -5% revenue change within one calendar year can cripple a university’s operating budget and services. (University of Colorado, Boulder revenue and budget available here.)
Even with a $102m budget deficit the university instituted a sweeping paid parental leave policy, available to its 9,961 full-time employees (as reported in 2021 here). Paid parental leave is an investment in employees and signals an employer’s commitment to their team. It's no wonder paid leave is directly linked to employee retention and happiness.
Did any of these surprise you? From grassroot nonprofits to DTC, paid parental leave is permeating industries as a must have for 2023 and beyond.
