Our benchmarks reveal how much paid parental and medical leave the most progressive high-growth tech companies are offering. See how your policies compare and learn how you can form a more competitive policy.
2023 leave benchmarks are here! Check out the updated data set for more insights on parental, medical, and caregiver leave policies.
Time and again, one of the most common questions we hear from People leaders is “how competitive is our leave policy?” In today’s highly competitive talent market, it’s not surprising that tech companies are hyper aware of what their policies communicate to candidates and current employees as well as how they benchmark against their peers.
In an effort to get a leg up, we’re seeing companies expanding their existing policies to better support caregivers and working parents, plus introducing more progressive types of leave. To better understand just what these policies look like, we dove into the data of 108 venture-backed tech companies’ parental and medical leave policies in 2022.
Paid parental leave is table stakes for employees working in tech. The vast majority of companies in our analysis offer 100% pay for the full duration of parental leave. Supplementing the benefits an employee may receive from their state or their company’s disability insurance is one of the best ways People leaders can make sure employees have as smooth a leave experience as possible.
Across companies of all sizes in our data set, the average leave policy for birthing parents is 14.9 weeks and 10.8 weeks for non-birthing parents. Here’s a look into how that breaks down as companies grow:
Paid medical leave is less common in our data set. Of the 108 companies in our data set, 58 shared medical leave policies. All of these policies include top-up pay for employees while they’re receiving disability payments so they receive 100% of their normal pay while on medical leave.
If you feel like your company is already offering competitive leave, it’s important to look at which levers you can pull beyond actual time off. One increasingly popular way to do this is by easing team members back into work with ramp back programs, supporting them with more flexible hours as they adjust to their new normal.
One of the best of such a program is Dropbox, where employees receive 100% pay for working at 60% capacity in their first week back. This helps employees transition back into their role after a long leave, and focus mostly on catching up and getting settled with new responsibilities like childcare and pumping time.
And, if such a generous policy sounds like a hard sell to your leadership team, the facts may surprise you. A significant portion of your 100% paid policy can be funded by state and insurance policies (and Cocoon can help you figure out exactly how your employees on leave get paid, and from where). Additionally, competitive leave policies help attract and keep talent, so the benefits are far-reaching where it comes to engagement and retention.
And if you’re hesitant that it may be too soon to implement such competitive leave policies, many of the best people leaders craft policies based on where they expect their company to be a year from now. Proactively planning for the future allows companies to attract and retain talent going into the next phase of scale.
Competitive paid leave is more or less table stakes for tech companies, so it’s important they find new and innovative ways to support employees taking leave.
It’s clear that people leaders are responding to the needs of their employees and recognizing the importance of employee benefits, especially where they impact major life events. By understanding how other companies are managing leave, people leaders can craft policies that are competitive, compassionate, and supportive.
We can’t wait another 30 years for a solution that only works for some Americans. It’s time to shape the conversations and decisions that will finally give US citizens access to paid leave to afford the time and cost to take care of themselves, their families, and loved ones.
