The technology company Microsoft has announced that starting next year, companies it contracts with will have to offer their employees a minimum of 12 weeks of paid parental leave. This new rule applies to all American companies that work with Microsoft and have more than 50 employees, be it the staff who manage the bar inside the Microsoft headquarters, the one who deals with cleaning or the consultants expert in computer engineering. Microsoft decided to introduce it after the state of Washington, where its headquarters is located in Redmond, introduced a law that from 2020 will oblige companies to offer paid parental leave to their employees, a practice still not widespread in the United States. .
In the corporate blog post announcing the initiative Dev Stahlkopf, vice president of Microsoft, explained that the company wanted to broaden the effect of the new Washington state law by extending it to the companies it works with that are not based in the state. state. Dev Stahlkopf added that there are many studies showing that paid parental leave increases productivity and improves the morale of female workers who have children. It has also been observed that when there is paid paternity leave there are more men who take advantage of it: this allows them to create a better relationship with their young children, which in turn has been linked to better results of children on cognitive tests. . “When men and women have the opportunity to take advantage of paid parental leave, moreover, it is possible to better combat gender stereotypes regarding care activities, neutralize certain prejudices and promote equality at home and at work” wrote Stahlkopf. , who also pointed out that the new rule is likely to increase costs for the company and that the changes will be introduced in a reasonable way.
Microsoft told the Guardian that it has about a thousand supplier companies that the new rule will apply to and that it will impact the lives of thousands of workers. In the United States, only 13 percent of workers in private companies can have paid parental leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: it is the only developed country that does not guarantee this right to everyone with a national law.
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