PayPal is the latest Silicon Valley company to expand its paid leave policy, now offering moms the opportunity to take up 16 paid weeks off.
The benefits, which will apply to PayPal’s roughly 10,000 workers in the U.S., include up to 8 weeks paid maternity leave, coupled with 8 weeks paid “bonding leave,” which can be taken by moms and dads. The company also announced 8 weeks of paid family care leave, for employees with a seriously ill loved one. The new policies kick in on Jan. 1.
Previously, PayPal offered moms 8 weeks of leave at 80% pay. The bonding leave and family care leave are new benefits (one exception: California employees, who had access to the state disability program).
In a blog post published on Thursday, PayPal’s chief people officer Marcia Morales-Jaffe wrote that the policy shift was inspired by the notion that “delivering the level of care and service we aspire to offer our customers will only be possible if we are a company that champions our employees, too.” The benefits are designed to “promote healthy living and provide our employees with more control over their lives,” wrote Morales-Jaffe.
PayPal’s move follows other big tech firms, including Netflix, Amazon, and Microsoft, which also increased paid leave this year. Interestingly, while PayPal’s new benefits don’t quite stack up to those of say, Netflix—which offers one year of paid leave to new parents—the company will now provide more paid leave to moms than eBay, which just spun off PayPal this summer.
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