Younger workers increasingly desire work-life balance. These workers do not wish to sacrifice a quality family life for their career. Taking this cultural shift into account, employers must find creative ways of attracting and maintaining talent. Paid maternity and/or parental leave is one of the key benefits workers now seek and increasingly firms are finding ways of providing this benefit even though in most circumstances, it isn’t legally required.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not mandate some form of paid maternity leave. However, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires that covered employers provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave to many American workers. Furthermore, a growing number of states have enacted parental leave requirements, most unpaid, but a few (CA, NJ and WA) mandate some form of paid leave.

Recently, some firms, such as Netflix have garnered media attention by raising the bar on paid leave. In the case of Netflix, the firm now offers a year of paid leave to eligible employees. Other firms, particularly in the technology sector offer similar “family friendly” benefits. As the economy continues to recover and firms compete for talent, the benefits of offering paid leave may outweigh the costs.

Even if firms are unable to provide substantial paid leave, a combination of unpaid leave, flexible scheduling and telecommuting may provide the work/life balance that employees increasingly seek. Employers must also ensure that their programs comply with Federal, state and sometimes even local leave requirements. 25 states now mandate various forms of parental leave and the interaction between these differing state requirements can be complex, particularly for multistate employers.

Contact your ProSential Broker to evaluate your leave program.