Report: Netflix Scaling Back Generous Paid Parental Leave Policy

Netflix’s long and generous paid parental leave program is in the spotlight after a new report claims that the company has quietly been pulling back on the benefit.

In 2015, the streaming giant started offering new moms and dads unlimited time off in their child’s first year. But over the past couple of years, the employer has allegedly quietly pulled back its benefit because too many workers were taking full advantage of the one-year policy, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Although Netflix has not officially stated the change, the report found that the company’s employees say taking more than six months of leave is frowned upon and is “now widely understood to be an unwise career move.”

We’ve rounded up additional articles on the news and the state of paid parental leave.

An Unsustainable Model

Netflix has spent the past few years trying to walk back its one-year policy, sometimes giving employees vague and conflicting guidance on the benefit “without explicitly retracting the one-year benefit,” according to internal employee reports, communications, and employee interviews.

The problem was that more workers than expected took full advantage of the benefit, and Netflix ultimately found it unsustainable. A Netflix spokesperson said the company hasn’t pulled back its parental leave policy and that over the past four years, the average parental leave has held steady at 6.3 months for U.S. employees and 7.5 months for those outside of the U.S.

(The Wall Street Journal)

Citi Boosts Paid Parental Leave Policy

Although Netflix has apparently scaled back its paid parental benefits, other companies have recently enhanced their programs.

Financial services firm Citi announced in June that Citi employees in the U.S. and Puerto Rico will receive 16 weeks of paid parental leave, “ensuring more time to bond with a child and supporting all paths to parenthood,” the firm said. Birthing parents will receive additional paid recovery time of up to eight weeks, to total up to 24 weeks. All employees will also be eligible for two weeks of paid leave annually to care for an immediate family member.

The firm last expanded parental leave in the U.S. in 2017, increasing birthing-parent leave to 16 weeks from 13 weeks and nonbirthing-parent leave to eight weeks from two weeks. Citi had no prior paid caregiving leave policy.

“These changes underscore our commitment to an inclusive workplace and supporting colleagues and their families through major life stages,” Citi CHRO Sara Wechter wrote in a company memo.

(SHRM)

No Federal Paid Parental Leave, But Employers Making Progress

The U.S. is one of the only industrialized countries with no federal paid parental leave, and workplaces with paid parental leave remain rare. Just 27% of all private-industry workers have access to paid family leave, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Workers who can least afford to take unpaid time off are also the least likely to have access to paid leave: According to the BLS, just 14% of workers in the lowest 25% wage category get that benefit, compared with 48% of those in the top 10%.

But some employers are making strides on their own as employees increasingly call for better benefits to manage their personal lives. Employers often answer the call as a way to better recruit and retain workers.

According to SHRM’s 2024 Employee Benefits Survey, the number of employers offering parental leave and family leave benefits has jumped since 2022.

(SHRM and SHRM)