Virgin’s ‘Brilliant’ Family Leave Sends Powerful Message for Working Families
Toward the end of a difficult pregnancy, my blood pressure spiked and I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, a life-threatening disorder that puts mom and baby at risk. My doctor sent me to the hospital a couple of weeks before my due date, where it was decided I was getting induced right then – and I’d need extra monitoring to make sure my unborn son was OK. “Hold on,” I said, and pulled my iPhone out of my bag. I had to email my office and let them know that I was signing off work for awhile.
But, you see, I am one of the lucky ones.
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When I ended up with a c-section after 21 hours of labor, I didn’t have to worry if I could even take time off to bond with my newborn and let my body recover, or how I’d pay the bills while not working. I am employed by a company that provides 16 weeks of fully paid leave for new moms and eight weeks for dads.
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The U.S. is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t provide paid maternity leave — in fact, the only other countries in the world that don’t offer it are Papua New Guinea and Suriname. We have the Family Medical Leave Act, passed with much debate in 1993 — but it only guarantees women 12 weeks of unpaid leave if they’ve worked at their company for 1,250 hours over the past 12 months and the company employs 50 or more people. According to a recent White House report, FMLA covers less than 20 percent of all new mothers. Even workers who are technically covered by FMLA may not be able to afford unpaid leave for 12 weeks.
For men who want to spend time with their growing families, the situation is even bleaker. Just 14 percent of employers in the U.S. provide new dads with paid paternity leave, a 2014 Families and Work institute study says. And our culture doesn’t exactly embrace men who take time off work to be with their kids.
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Paid parental leave — regardless of gender – is not only important for establishing a bond with your baby and a parent’s mental health in the short and long term, it’s also good for business. Writes the CEO of YouTube in the Wall Street Journal: “After California instituted paid medical leave, a survey in 2011 by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 91 percent of employers said the policy either boosted profits or had no effect. They also noted improved productivity, higher morale and reduced turnover.”
That’s why Richard Branson’s latest move to give some employees of the Virgin Group — both men and women — up to a year of paid leave is so brilliant. To be sure, there are some strings — only about 140 London or Geneva-based Virgin Management workers who have been at the company for at least four years are eligible for the fully-paid leave. But it sends a powerful message about what an employer can – and should – do to support working families.
And moms and dads aren’t the only ones who will benefit in this arrangement; Virgin will also reap the rewards of a committed workforce.
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“If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your business,” Branson says in a statement. “As a father and now a granddad to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child’s life is but also how much hard work it takes.”
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