Employees at Stonyfield Farm, a yogurt maker based in Londonderry, New Hampshire, recently received good news: They will soon be entitled to six months of paid parental leave.
The surprise boost in benefits is brought on by an announcement from its French parent company, Danone, which decided to bring its parental leave policies for employees of its U.S. operations in line with those offered to its workers in France, where companies are required by law to offer women at least 16 weeks of paid maternity leave for their first or second children and 26 weeks of paid leave for any subsequent children.
Like many American employers, Stonyfield does not currently offer any paid parental leave. New parents are currently allowed four weeks of unpaid time off in addition to the federally-mandated 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
In a statement explaining the decision to the New Hampshire Union Leader, Stonyfield spokesperson Liza Dube suggested that providing parents with time to raise their kids shouldn’t be left up to the business world.
“The U.S. is tragically behind the rest of the world when it comes to acknowledging all of the benefits that come along with having a caregiver home when a child is introduced to the family,” she said.
“We’re doing it because America is not doing it for us,” she added.
Expanding various types of leave seems to be all the rage over the past year. Big-name companies, particularly in tech, have been announcing generous new vacation and parental leave policies in an effort to attract and retain top talent. The positive public relations that they gain from the announcements probably doesn’t hurt either.
However, the companies that have been making the announcements disproportionately employ well-paid, white collar workers. There has been very little evidence that blue collar America has gotten much out of corporate America’s newfound sense of altruism.
One bright spot for unskilled workers came from Hilton, which recently announced that it will offer 10 weeks of paid maternity leave to the thousands of hourly workers employed at its hotels.
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