Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer famously returned to work just two weeks after having a baby last September, but she’s making sure other new mums get much longer.
Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer famously returned to work just two weeks after having a baby last September, but she’s making sure other new mums get much longer.
The California-based tech company will give mothers up to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, which also applies to adoption, foster child placement, and surrogacy, and fathers are entitled to eight paid weeks. New parents will also get a $500 cash bonus for things like child care and groceries, according to a spokeswoman for the company.
Previously, Yahoo did not provide paid paternity leave and its maternity leave varied from state to state.
The company last made the news in February when it announced it was ending work-from-home options for its 11,000 staff.
"Marissa Mayer probably found that intentionally or not her policies had created terrible morale. She has learned from it. And wow, she's like the parent who says, 'No you can't have ice cream, but I'm buying you a pony'," Lesley Jane Seymour, editor-in-chief of More Magazine, told NBC.
It’s likely to be a drawcard for new employees, and a loyalty boost for current staff, because the US maternity leave rules vary from state to state, with some having no mandated minimum.
Yahoo competitor Google, which was Mayer’s former employer, offers 18 to 22 weeks of paid maternity leave, and up to seven weeks of paid paternity leave.
