Microsoft ups parental leave benefits in the US

MUMBAI, INDIA: It’s raining parental leaves in the IT industry this year.

Spearheaded by Flipkart which announced parental leave benefits last month, Netflix too has followed suit. Now a similar announcement comes from none other than the world’s largest software major, Microsoft!

Starting November 2015, new mothers in the US can take up to 20 weeks paid leave, and non-birth parents can take up to 12 weeks paid time off. That's eight more weeks paid leave for both parents than the company previously offered, Microsoft says.

As we ask our employees to bring their “…A key component of this is supporting our employees with benefits that matter most to them. This is why today we’re announcing enhancements to our US corporate employee benefits in three areas that employees consistently rank among the most important: having time to renew; saving for the future; and flexibility needed to spend time with new children,” Kathleen Hogan, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Microsoft, in her blog post.

"These changes are in direct support of the culture we aspire to have—one that allows people to build meaningful careers," she writes.

While CIOL welcomes the initiative, we believe that the benefits should be passed to employees across geographies.