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Google Just Increased Parental Leave To 24 Weeks—Here’s How That Compares To Other Tech Giants

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This article is more than 2 years old.
Updated Apr 14, 2022, 02:05pm EDT

Topline

Google is increasing paid time off for workers who give birth to a maximum of 24 weeks from the previous 18, according to reports Thursday, as the tech industry continues to lead the country in terms of worker benefits—here’s how long parental leaves are at other major tech firms in the country.

Key Facts

Most tech giants in the U.S. offer less paid leave for workers who give birth than Google’s 24 weeks: birth parents at Airbnb and Microsoft are offered around 22 weeks of paid time off, 20 weeks at Amazon, 18 weeks at Uber and around 17 weeks at Meta.

Tech firms that offer longer parental time off than Google include Netflix—which allows up to a year of parental leave since 2015—and Salesforce and Adobe, which each offer 26 weeks.

Fiona Cicconi, Google's chief people officer, told Business Insider the company wanted to “support our employees at every stage of their lives” by extending paid parental leave for workers who give birth.

Google’s new policy includes: extended paid leave for workers who give birth, longer paid leave for their partners from 12 weeks to 18 and more paid vacation days from 15 to 20.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 workweeks of unpaid maternity and paternity leave for some workers, such as those who are employed by businesses with 50 or more workers.

Key Background

According to the Washington Post, the United States is the only developed country that does not guarantee paid parental leave on a federal level. Only two in 10 civilian and private industry workers in the U.S. had access to paid family leave as of March 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the majority of Americans supporting paid family and medical leave, President Joe Biden had campaigned to introduce it. His hopes of delivering the promise almost shattered in October when lawmakers did not include paid family and medical leave in the Build Back Better plan as Democrats reduced the size of the spending package to win support from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). After a back and forth, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in November four weeks of paid family and medical leave was added to the package. 

Big Number

47.3. That’s roughly the number of weeks Nordic countries—Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland—cover for paid parental leave, according to National Geographic

Further Reading

Google bumps up vacation days and parental leaves (Reuters)

How does the U.S. compare to other countries on paid parental leave? Americans get 0 weeks. Estonians get more than 80. (Washington Post)

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