Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg is changing the face of social media once again. Beginning in
January, 2016, Facebook will offer up to four months paid paternity leave to
its full-time male employees around the world. This coupled with a $4,000 “new
child benefit” option will affect 34 international offices and nearly 12,000
employees – making Facebook’s parental benefits among the best in the U.S.
Facebook is not
the only company looking to offer better paternal benefits. Spotify, Netflix,
and Amazon have also begun to strengthen their paternal benefits. For example, Netflix
has begun to offer unlimited paid time off until a child’s first birthday to
all male and female employees. While this phenomenon is not uncommon to countries
outside of the U.S., it is a very drastic change for U.S. companies who in the
past have not offered paternal benefits and only offered a maximum of 8 weeks’
maternity leave for new mothers.
With this new benefit
being offered to new fathers in companies across the U.S., what do you think
will happen to the current work force? Since this new benefit is only offered
to full-time employees, do you think
a hike in part-time employment will occur in the coming future?
9 comments:
As traditional gender roles are beginning to fade out in a modern society, the idea of both the mother and/or father staying home is starting to become much more common and accepted of an idea. In 2011, it was impossible to find an advertisement or a commercial with a father in a "homemaker's role" - tending to the children or cleaning. Now that we are nearing 2016, every other advertisement features a dad making the kids lunches or cleaning the house. This changing and alternating gender roles idea is definitely a contributor towards the reason there is now longer paternity leave in modern age companies. Also, stronger maternity/paternity benefits are a great way to incentivize employees to work for a certain company. With a changing and growing economy, the ability to change employment benefits come hand in hand.
I agree with all of Sophia's comments. I think these new improvements to the system will really help families. Often times now the woman will take an extended amount of time off from her job in order to care for the children which makes her less appealing to businesses once she returns to the workforce. Essentially at times it is almost like starting over. With these new policies, it will help both mothers and fathers to be able to take time off of work while still being paid and retaining their jobs. I think this will not only help families, but also society as families will be able to give the care to their children as well as remain in the workforce and moving the economy forward with less people being forced to leave.
I completely agree with what Sophia and Ashley said. I also think a longer paternity leave would be good for families. However, a longer maternity leave is completely necessary and overdue. An issue many Americans have is that there is no work-life balance, and by introducing these new leaves, it will encourage a more balanced lifestyle. I think it will encourage more efficient workplaces, along with higher morale.
This is a strong step for the US in this regard and hopefully many companies will follow the policy allowing parents to be with their children when they are young. It is difficult to really say how much paid time off a company can give but it is good for both the mother and father to be able to be with the child in the early stages.
It is a great start to allow parents to spend more time with their child at the early stage. and I hope this can lead to more companies to follow.
I don't believe that this will be a trend that will be able to catch on. Though I think it is great in theory, I think Facebook is a company that has enough capital, both human and monetary, to allow this option for its employees. However smaller companies will not be able to afford the loss of their employees for an extend amount of time with the additional cost of still paying there salary. It is a lose lose.
I would assume this is being put into place with regards to more homosexual couples coming about via the new legislation in 2015. As well as this, more women are now working in higher positions in companies than ever before, which may make their jobs more financially important than to their male spouses. Personally, this doesn't do too much to the economy, since Facebook is willing to pay for paternity leave. It doesn't put pressure on any other firms to do so, and as long as they can pay it out, it won't be an issue. Productivity may go down, but Facebook can always hire more workers, if they're willing to pay, which they seem to be.
I think this is a great leap forward for the American working market, and hopefully this can cause other companies to replicate what Facebook is doing. This practice is foreign in the U.S but many other countries offer similar perks, so I could see this trend slowly working it's way into the American system.
Absolutely, I wholeheartedly agree with what Sophia is saying. It is absolutely atrocious to think that the US, the supposed champion of family values, does not let parents spend time with their children at a time of their lives when it is so absolutely crucial. The fact that maternity leave is not as extensive as countries such as Sweden also suggest that there should be a focus on a greater role that not only the father, but the family unit as a whole plays in the development of a close knit family unit.
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