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American Express Will Give All Parents 20 Weeks Of Paid Leave (cnn.com)
Starting in January, the financial services giant will expand its paid parental leave policy for mothers and fathers to 20 weeks at full pay, plus another six to eight weeks for women who give birth and require medical leave. Full-time and part-time employees who have worked at Amex for at least a year are eligible. CNN adds: That's a big shift from the company's current policy of offering six weeks of paid leave for the primary parent plus another six to eight weeks for birth mothers who require medical leave. Secondary caregivers, meanwhile, have gotten just two weeks. Under the new policy, parents will also have access to a 24-hour lactation consultant. And mothers who go on business trips will be able to ship their breast milk home for free.
this is america, it's going to happen. discrimination against those who don't want or can't have children. the latter being a medical condition that surely someone will consider an ada-covered disability... and they just might find a judge to agree with them.
I'm a parent, I don't work for American Express... will they give me 20 weeks?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
for keeping your legs closed, perchance?
It's not bad, but my employer gives me half an hour paid leave every day to get first posts.
get to pick up the slack with no extra PTO or a larger salary? I understand the need to help parents, and i don't dispute it. I get that maybe parents needsome time out for a new birth or to leave early or come in late or take time off now and again to deal with older kids, but 20 weeks at full pay? doesn't that put a huge burden on those who dont have kids to pick up the slack?
Because it certainly isn't "stuff that matters" !
They leave it in a bottle on your front porch
As a single guy who doesn't smoke, I'm starting to think I'm getting screwed here.
If the Duggar's worked for AMEX... 7+ years of paid vacation over the course of time...
..you're only now 19 weeks behind Statutory Maternity Pay in the UK.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
I'm curious how this story is technology or science related?
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
I already see comments from single people or people who choose to not have kids saying we "breeders" are taking advantage of them. A policy like this makes sense. Families are already screwed up because unless you want to live in the middle of nowhere, a two-income household is becoming a requirement. Either both parents have to work low end jobs to make ends meet, or the cost of living is so high in regions with jobs that both parents have to be able to cover that so they can do the work they're qualified for. I have 2 kids, and will not be able to have more mainly because of that (and because I like my sanity...) The problem is that society and markets at large have adjusted to the 2-earner family being the default. The only families I know who have a stay-at-home parent live in very low-cost areas, have an incredibly well-compensated spouse (doctors, execs, etc.) or are working for something like state government where the lower household income is balanced by the job security. Everyone else has to pay through the nose for childcare, a not-insignificant expense. (And before you say we're consumer robots buying toys with our 2 incomes, we're not...but we also want to be able to save and not have 19 cents in the bank right before our next paychecks hit.)
If the 2-earner household is now the default, then AmEx's policy is a response to that. I think that even with all the crappy MBA-driven offshoring, outsourcing and layoffs, many companies really do want to find people who will stick with them, do beyond the bare minimum to avoid getting fired, and not be a basket of stress ready to keel over at a moment's notice. This seems to me like a decent response to these demands. Having a family is stressful enough -- I know I get into work in the morning, and the clock starts ticking so I can avoid working late after everyone goes to bed. Replacing an employee is expensive. The company I work for is on the downswing of a fad where all we do is hire contractors, and it absolutely stinks having to retrain someone every year. When that someone is doing a complex job that really requires an FTE, this goes double!
So, are we breeders? Maybe, but we do have a not-insignificant amount of extra responsibility, stress and financial burdens. Having a company actually extend a little help here and there is a good thing. The place I work was very understanding when my kids were born, even though there's no paternity leave policy...my bosses had all been in the same spot and made sure i didn't have to go all over the world during those first few months -- and they realized that there were some days I'd be a total mess and rolled with it. I think AmEx is going the right way with this, because I'm still with the employer who cut me slack...and I could have left for worse conditions and more money.
Random comments...
Workers with families may actually be beneficial to companies. Why? Speaking as a parent in a single-income household, I would think they are less prone to job-hunting/switching frequently. It'd be interesting to see statistics on employee turnover rate for single vs. married vs. married-with-kids (or vs. single-with-kids, whatever). My income is very important to me, because I have three other people to provide for (plus associated "life" activities). It's stressful to not have a job; it's more stressful when you have a spouse and kids to provide for and, well, not starve, get into debt, lose your house, that sort of thing.
That said ... heh, 20 weeks is a lot, that's like 5 months. I'm happy with 2-4 weeks of paternal leave, but it's not a huge deal if a company didn't give paternal leave. I think it's great, because IMO, it's a statement of the importance of family and the importance of fathers in family life. I mean, I wouldn't complain about 20 weeks! But I can see how someone might think 20 weeks for a *father* is a lot.
Also, that said, 20 weeks for a mother is *not* that much. Even the official pediatric recommendation is to breastfeed, exclusively, if you can, for at least 6 months. It's really, really, really hard to exclusively breastfeed while working if you have any milk supply issues at all... because pumping just doesn't work the same. Sure, maybe companies should take that into account when working out pay, or maybe some of that should be without pay, or whatever, but unless we want to say to women that having kids is unimportant, or that making them healthy is unimportant, then time off for those critical months in a baby's development is a big deal to me. As a father. ;)
and I could stay home on full pay for a very long time
HOW can a business afford to have employees off for that long. And, if a business CAN afford to have employees off that long, do they have too many employees working for them?
A baby boom has been reported at cities where offices of AmEX are located, the same areas where Trojan and other condom makers have posted an abrupt drop in sales. Maternity wards are overwhelmed with demand and retail stores are having trouble keep their shelves stocked with baby accessories. More details at 11.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
20 (Father) + 20 + 8 (Mother) = 48
So no, we are now 9 weeks ahead.
But all this is ridiculous, if global warming is half as serious as claimed we should in no way be subsidizing increasing the population. The number one worst thing you can do to increase carbon footprint is to have a child.
I have been an American Express customer for twenty years. In those twenty years, I have had a few issues, like card numbers stolen and irregular charges. In all cases, they solved the problem immediately, at no cost or headaches for me, sometimes taking it in the chin for me. In one occasion, I had a dispute with a hotel about a $400 charge, and a call to American Express fixed it. They said to me that I did not have to worry about the issue any more, and they were true to their word: I don't know how they negotiated with the hotel, but the bill and the charge just disappeared. I have no complaints about paying American Express my annual fee - they really have gone the extra mile for me more than once.
When women chose to drop out of the workforce to have children, whether it is 20 weeks or whatever, their non-childbearing cohorts--usually males--continue to accrue experience and visibility. They earn raises and promotions. The child-bearing women then sue because they were not given raises or promotions, or at least complain about the "gender gap" and push for laws that force employers to ignore the raw fact that the child-bearing women (and their partners who might also choose to sit out for weeks or months) are, in fact, now behind the experience curve. Repeat for second kid, and somehow it's discrimination because woman A and cohort B (probably a man) who were hired on the same day into the same job now are paid significantly differently due to woman A being 3 or 4 years behind the experience curve. And more lawsuits fly.
And you see the people who 'plan' when to have kids often Never find the right time until it is to late and you get into IVF hell. Benefits like this can help make the decision easier. If you single folk need a rationalization think of having kids as the same as getting sick - you wouldn't begrudge a sick person taking leave.
Was so pleased to read this article, I reactivated my amex. Companies that care beyond the level prescribed by law are the ones to do business with in my opinion.
Other countries are implementing policies like this.
If the company had been "Canadian Express" they would have to offer just short of a year off per family which can be split between parents almost as desired (the mother must take some minimum)...and they would have been doing this for well over a decade. So well done American Express for finally managing to catch up with late 20th century employment conditions only a few more decades to go...
I am gladly surprised, as I did not expect a big multinational company to give anything to workers without fighting. Perhaps there is some fine print somewhere?
So who is the executive at AMEX that had a power in that decision that will become parent in 2017?
Mothers get a year in Canada. 52 weeks. Every one of them. The first 16 or 17 are at full pay, the rest are part of everyone's unemployment insurance, so it's 55% pay. It's considered too short, and they're thinking of extending it to 18 months.
Our kid just turned 11 months, and we're preparing for daycare. I can't even imagine that at 20 weeks.
Now they will have more time to work on their resumes, they'll need it.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
Does this apply to current cardholders only? I'm thinking of getting an American express credit card if this applies to new members as well.
Subj says it all.
Cf: SI.SE to learn more about Sweden.
A land that's - by Law - stayed out of Other People's Wars for generations.
"USA needs more Sweden"
My Title got clipped short. The missing bit was:
(Provided Dad takes enough of the Parental Leave)
You got a Long Way to Go, USA. :-)