In a move to boost recruitment and retention while keeping up with the corporate Joneses, American Express said it will offer 20 weeks of paid leave to any U.S. employee of either gender who has a child through any means, including adoption and surrogacy.
Birth mothers will get an additional six to eight weeks of paid medical leave on top of that.
The announcement is a huge leap forward by the credit card company, since it currently makes separate provisions for primary and secondary caregivers of six and two weeks paid leave, respectively.
As companies like AmEx compete for talent in a tightening labor market, generous parental leave that doesn’t distinguish between moms, dads, or birth parents is slowly replacing maternity and paternity leave policies in the most competitive industries.
Tech firms, in part because of their difficulty with recruiting and retaining women, have led the way. Etsy Inc., for example, now offers 26 paid weeks off for all new parents; Netflix Inc. offers up to a year.
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