#ShowUsYourLeave: Pressure grows on companies to be transparent about their paid family leave plans

The US is the largest economy in the world, but it’s the only wealthy nation that doesn’t have a national policy guaranteeing paid leave. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 2021, only 23% of private-sector civilian workers in the US had access to paid family leave.

That’s why theSkimm, a digital media group focused on millennial women, started the “ShowUsYourLeave” campaign in late 2021, to encourage workers to share their experiences and employers to showcase their paid parental leave policies. “We need to get loud about the struggles we’re faced with in navigating new parenthood and how paid family leave, or lack thereof, has an impact,” the campaign’s homepage declares.

TheSkimm says over 300 companies have since shared their family leave policies on social media, including Intel, Etsy, The Nature Conservancy, and Lionsgate.

Zoom in. Among companies who shared their paid leave policies, several (theSkimm, HubSpot, and March of Dimes) said they offer 14–18 weeks of paid parental leave, while some, including Hootsuite and Etsy, provide up to 26 weeks of leave for all parents. Many packages go beyond time off, with Pinterest and Adobe providing bereavement leave after pregnancy loss, adoption assistance, and return-to-work counseling.

Keeping pace in the race for talent. Brad Harrington, executive director of the Boston College Center for Work and Family, told HR Brew that as the US falls behind other countries on paid leave, organizations that offer attractive leave policies could gain an edge in the war for talent.

“Understand that young people these days have very different attitudes about gender equality, and about fathers’ active engagement in families, and about women’s earning power,” Harrington said. “So I think these organizations realize that this could be a competitive advantage. And once they looked around and saw that their peers were doing it, then organizations begin to jump on board.”

The bottom line. Access to paid family leave in 2021, compared to 40% of the highest-paid workers in the US.

Harrington says that it’s important to remember these workers in any conversation or plans for parental-leave benefits, explaining that “low-wage workers and hourly workers are the people that, right now, those are jobs that are hard to fill. And so we are seeing some organizations, a couple of hotel chains…who basically said, ‘We’re going to offer this across the board, and it doesn’t matter what job category you’re in.’”—KP

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