Right on the heels of New York State’s announcement of its new, revolutionary family-leave policy, another private company has stepped into the debate over America’s abysmal lack of parental leave to offer a more than reasonable benefit to its employees.
Fortune reports that Twitter will offer 20 weeks paid parental leave to their full-time employees, and new moms and new dads are free to take it when the policy comes into effect in the U.S. on May 1. International employees of the company will see the policy change on July 1.
Jeffrey Siminoff, Twitter’s VP of inclusion and diversity, told Fortune, ”The goal of this change was to expand how we think about parental leave. Primary caregiving is something that’s hard to define.” Twitter joins Etsy, Facebook, and Change.org in their adoption of greater paid-parental-leave benefits. Previously, Twitter offered 20 weeks to mothers only, and 10 weeks to fathers and parents of adopted children. Twitter’s director of compensation and benefits, Laura Brady, said Twitter plans to bring in outside trainers to work with managers on how to organize around the new family-leave policy.
