Yesterday, Netflix announced that, effective immediately, it would be providing unlimited parental leave, at full pay, to new moms and dads for a full year. The company's policy is extremely flexible, allowing workers up to a year at regular pay, "or choose to stay home for a few months, return part-time for a spell and then head out of the office for a few more months."
All I can say is, it's about damn time a company did it.
In case you didn't know, the U.S. is the WORST at offering parental leave to workers. A Pew Research survey from December 2013 found that out of 38 countries selected, the U.S. was the only one that did not have federally-supported paid leave. Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the government provides unpaid, protected leave for 12 weeks (with loads of conditions), but of the 38 countries, that puts the U.S. in DEAD LAST, tied with Mexico. I could go on, but John Oliver's coverage of this topic is pretty much all you need to understand how much the U.S. sucks at providing family leave.
Big accounting firms have stepped up in this area, offering many weeks of fully paid time off. If you're a new parent, hopefully you're taking full advantage of it. Especially you, dads. Netflix's move steals the Big 4's thunder a bit, so maybe they'll ante up. Let's hope so.
But what about the rest of you? We'd like to learn a bit about what your employers are offering, so help us out by taking the survey below and discussing parental leave in the comments. Don't worry, it's painless, only 10 questions.
We'll report back with the findings. Thanks for playing.
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