Employee Benefits: Paid Leave For New Parents

Employee Benefits
Valuing jobs using market pricing is an important process of HR planning to decide what package of salaries and benefits that prospective jobs might offer to employees (CSU Global). Additionally, benefits create and preserve a competitive advantage for the organization. Despite the significant costs of benefit offerings for organizations, it is an important factor to attract and retain employees. Surveys show that 70% of employees regard to benefits as an important factor to consider when deciding to join or remain with an organization (Mathis, Jackson, &Valentine, 2014, p.443). Consequently, what benefits an organization offers will affect employee attraction and retention; therefore, a composition of benefits should account for the increasingly competitive global marketplace.
Paid Leave for New Parents

To offset the unpaid FMLA provision, some organizations provide specific paid leave benefits for new parents. A 2013 survey conducted among U.S. human resource professionals illustrated that sixteen percent of organizations offered paid maternity leave, other than what is covered by short-term disability or state law, and 15% provided paid paternity leave (2013 employee benefits: An overview of employee benefit offerings in the U.S., 2013). The composition of family oriented benefits, like paid leave for new parents, has changed significantly within the U.S. and globally over the past few decades (Mathis, Jackson, &Valentine, 2014,