Paid Family Leave
What is Paid Family Leave?
Paid family leave provides workers with time off of work for family expansion and caregiving needs (child-birth, surrogacy or adoption). Paid family leave policies should be designed to be gender and caregiver agnostic, though policies may provide additional time off for recovery of birth-giving workers.
Attract Top Talent
Workers, especially younger workers - both men and women - consider benefits like paid family leave when considering new professional opportunities.
77% of workers take into consideration how much paid family time off is allowed when deciding where to work.
90% of Millennials and Gen Z workers state that reproductive health benefits are important as they enter the workforce.
Offering paid family leave has also been seen to increase a company’s diversity.
Workforce Retention
Paid family leave has been shown to improve retention. Higher retention has a positive impact on financial performance.
Women are 93% more likely to return to work after taking paid family leave compared with women who do not have access to paid family leave.
After increasing its paid maternity leave by 6 weeks, Google found that turnover for women returning after childbirth declined by 50%.
Improved Productivity
A recent McKinsey study found that 100% of respondents who had taken paid family leave felt more motivated to stay with their employer and reported being more productive at work.
82% of companies that implemented paid family leave reported that their employees had a boost in morale and 63% of employers that implemented paid family leave policies reported an increase in productivity from their employees.
Net Positive Impact on Financial Performance
Companies with a paid family and medical leave policy reported 2.5% higher profits than firms that do not.
On average, it costs 33% of a worker’s annual salary to hire and train a replacement employee. Lowering turnover has a materially positive impact on human capital expenses.
Improving a paid family leave policy tends to attract significant attention in the media, which can boost a company’s brand, especially when said company is an early mover in a particular industry, or if the company is offering a new or more expansive policy.
