Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently returned to work after giving birth, and now she’s giving some impressive parenting perks to her fellow employees.
Among one of the most impressive moves is a maternity leave period of 16 weeks. The new Yahoo perks go into effect immediately.
The Wall Street Journal reports the following new parenting perks for Yahoo employees:
- Eight weeks of paid leave for new fathers and parents who adopt or go through a surrogate
- An additional eight-week unpaid sabbatical for every five years spent at the company
- $500 to put toward food, housecleaning, or other household expenses for new parents
- $5,000 toward adopting a child (this isn’t new, but the offer still stands)
- Yahoo swag for new pets
The tech industry is still a very much male dominated work sector, and companies have been fighting to retain their female works. Analysts have long argued that the female perspective allows tech firms to better understand their user bases and therefore create better products for all demographics.
Yahoo isn’t the first company to cater to new parents and pregnant moms. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her book Lean In talks about adding reserved parking spots for expectant mothers.
Google increased its own maternity leave from three months to five months, and, in exchange, turnover among women at the company decreased by 50 percent.
Do you think giving more perks to expectant mothers and women who just gave birth will ultimately help Yahoo and other tech companies build a stronger relationship among women workers?
