Follow
Amazon joins companies expanding parental leave for employees according to an internal email sent to all employees on Monday.
Amazon joins companies expanding parental leave for employees according to an internal email sent to all employees on Monday.
The good news extends to all Amazon employees. The new Amazon policy is set to take effect starting January 1st, 2016. A gross outline of the changes implies that employees who become new parents and have been with the company for a minimum of one year receive an added six weeks of paid leave. Regardless of gender, new parents will be able to spend more time with their adopted child or birth child.
While Amazon has been criticized for a lack of coherent benefits for new parents, the company seems to be catching up with the throng of tech companies enforcing perks and benefits for new parents.
Mirroring the companies’ efforts to keep talented people in a highly competitive market, the benefits vary from place to place. The mere fact that they are in place now brings a wealth of good news to employees.
Amazon joins companies expanding parental leave for employees. Thus, all new parents will benefit from six weeks paid leave. Mothers also benefit from 10 weeks of leave, with some mother qualifying for extra four weeks of medical leave. Overall, 20 weeks of paid leave bode well for new mothers wanting to spend time with their children.
In addition, Amazon introduced for the first time paid leave for new fathers. Moreover, the ‘leave share’ program allows Amazon employees to share their parental leave with a partner that may not benefit of the same perk through his or her own line of work.
Due to a highly competitive environment for technical expertise, a number of companies are competing in all areas in order to attract and retain valuable employees. Amazon’s newly announced benefits include full-time employees with distribution centers at Amazon.
While employees with Netflix’s DVD-by-mail division didn’t benefit from similar time-off schemes, Netflix has also tweaked the parental paid leave policy last year. Employees are eligible for one year of paid leave following the adoption or birth of a child.
Microsoft also enforced a new policy, with new parents benefiting from an added eight weeks of paid leave.
In the Monday email Amazon also announced that the ‘ramp back’ program will offer the possibility of half-time working hours or three-quarter working hours to primary caregivers and birth mothers. The program spans eight weeks after the birth moms or primary caregivers return to work.
Photo Credits: Pixabay
