Goldman Now Offers More Parental Leave Than Other Big Banks

(Bloomberg) -- New parents at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. can now take more paid time off than at any other major U.S. bank.

Employees can take 20 weeks of paid parental leave, up from the 16-week standard for primary caregivers at its Wall Street peers. All parents can take the same amount of time, regardless of gender and caregiver status, the firm announced Monday.

The decision to give all parents the same amount of time off comes in an industry that, like many others, has generally employed a distinction between “primary” and “secondary” caregivers. Most major banks offer less paid time off to secondary caregivers than primary.

Though Goldman now offers the most paid leave of any major U.S.-based bank, some big international banks already offered as much time to their U.S. employees. Huw Williams, a spokesperson for UBS Group AG, said on Monday that the Swiss bank will offer 20 weeks' leave to all parents starting in January 2020, regardless of gender and caregiver status.

Discrepancies have led to allegations of bias: In May, JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid $5 million to settle a discrimination claim filed by a male employee that alleged that men were discouraged from taking “primary caregiver” status. JPMorgan pledged in that settlement to make it clearer to its male employees that they could take primary caregiver leave.

Even when men are technically eligible to take the longer parenting leave, Wall Street dads can face implicit pressures not to, Bloomberg reported earlier this year. Banks have said they're working to reduce the stigma attached to taking time off.

Read More: Wall Street Dads Find Parental Leave Easier to Get Than to Take

On Monday, Goldman also introduced stipends for employees to undergo egg retrieval and donation; an expanded budget for adoption and surrogacy stipends; and four weeks of paid family leave, for instance for employees to care for ill family members. The changes took effect on Nov. 1.

--With assistance from Sridhar Natarajan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gwen Everett in New York at geverett10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Rebecca Greenfield, Philip Gray

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