10 Companies That Offer The Best Paid Paternity Leave Benefits

Prospective fathers who want to spend more family time with their soon-to-be-born son(s) or daughter(s) might consider switching workplaces to one of the 10 companies that offer the best paid paternity leave benefits.

(By the way, most of the companies with generous paternity leave packages are also among the 10 companies with the best maternity leave policies.)

Let’s face it, the typical American company isn’t generous when it comes to paternity benefits. As of the moment, the U.S has no law that requires a minimum number of days off for specific events, whether the nature be parental, medical, or vacation. That situation is unfortunate, especially for new parents, the majority of whom need time off to take care of their newborns. To add insult to injury, many other countries in the world have already adopted laws that require paid maternity leave for new parents, putting American families at a disadvantage globally when it comes to child care.

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Meanwhile, at most of the companies that do offer maternity leave, they tend to be limited to just a few days or weeks, and are only available for birth mothers. In a way, that is sensible, considering that women do all of the birthing and feeding of newborns (assuming the baby is being breastfed). However, the concept of family formation is far more complex, so that a policy that focuses only on new birth mothers puts foster parents, homosexual couples, and single dads at a disadvantage.

This problem exists in companies as small as mom-and-pop stores, which reason out that mandatory maternity leave policies would handicap them, and in companies as big as multinational fast-food chains, where it has been a struggle to get higher wages, let alone attain generous paternity leave provisions. Needless to say, most American companies offer paltry paternity leave packages. Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) offers four weeks of paid paternity leave, with the option of an additional eight weeks without pay, while new fathers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) only get two weeks off with pay.

The increased scrutiny and advocacy over paternity leave policies and Americans’ desire to get the same benefits as other nations has led to intensified coverage over how companies fare in terms of their paternity leave policies. This has led to a race by some of the top companies in the U.S to offer more generous benefits for new parents.

Websites like Fairygodboss and Glassdoor keep track of the paternity leave policies and related concerns at as many companies as possible, while highlighting the companies with the most generous benefits. Each website has employee-generated reviews on just about every company, with details on how much parental leave the companies provide. This list of the 10 companies that offer the best paid paternity leave benefits is based on the reviews and comments from those two companies’ websites, cross-checked with recent news about the companies’ policies. Check it out beginning on the next page.

10. IKEA

Ikea employees in the U.S receive up to 16 weeks of paternity (and maternity) leave, depending on their tenure with the company. There must be something in those Swedish meatballs that makes employers there more humane. For what it’s worth, Swedish parents at Ikea get 68 weeks of parental leave.

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9. Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) ranks 9th in our list of companies that offer the best paid paternity leave benefits. It also offers 16 weeks for paternity leave. Maybe American tech companies also eat a lot of Swedish meatballs.

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8. Ernst & Young

One of the Big Four accounting firms, EY surely wants to be the biggest one in terms of paternity leave, as it offers 16 weeks’ worth.

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7. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

The social media giant’s paternity leave policy is even more generous than the previous entrants, with 17 paid weeks allotted for new dads. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg also famously took a two-month paternity leave himself after the birth of his daughter, which was seen as an important milestone for promoting paternity leave awareness.

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6. Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS)

The only Wall Street firm on this list, Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS) offers 20 weeks of paid paternity leave to its employees (as well as the same amount of time to new mothers).

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5. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR)

Employees of the social media company, regardless of gender, receive 20 weeks of paid parental leave. That way, both mommy and daddy can take about five months off (that is, if they are both Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) employees).

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The next four companies in this list of the 10 companies that offer the best paid paternity leave benefits grant new fathers at least six months’ worth of leaves.

4. Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY)

All new fathers (and mothers) employed by online retailer Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY) are eligible for 26 weeks of paid leave, consumable over two years, no strings attached.

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3. Spotify

The music streaming service has a 26-week parental leave policy, with employees getting the option of spending those leave credits either during one full year or spread out over three years. Spotify started in Sweden, by the way, which lends more credence to my Swedish meatballs theory.

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2. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The world’s biggest private foundation has a one-year paid parental leave policy, for both new fathers and mothers. Needless to say, the organization’s charity extends to its employees as well.

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1. Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)

New fathers who are employed by Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) are allowed to take as much time off as they need for a full year after their child’s birth or adoption, ensuring that father and son/daughter have ample time for care (and perhaps watching kids’ shows on Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) together). After one year, the father can opt to return full-time or part-time, depending on his needs. Such a generous policy puts the internet streaming giant at the top of the list of the 10 companies that offer the best paid paternity leave benefits.

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